Nicole Kidman in a scene from the motion picture "Birth." (Gannett News Service/New Line) Birth Starring: Nicole Kidman, Cameron Bright, Danny Huston, Lauren Bacall, Anne Heche. Director: Jonathan Glazer. Rated R: Nudity, sex, violence, adult issues. Running time: 100 minutes. view the trailer | official website Anna is a young widow who is finally getting on with her life after the death of her husband, Sean. Now engaged to be married, Anna meets a ten-year-old boy who tells her he is Sean reincarnated. Though his story is both unsettling and absurd, Anna can't get the boy out of her mind. And much to the concern of her fiancée, her increased contact with him leads her to question the choices she has made in her life.

Oct 28, 12:38 PM

'Birth' dead on arrival

Premise disturbs, cast disappoints

BY JACK GARNER
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

The new thriller "Birth" offers a preposterous premise and then fails to help us believe it.

Nicole Kidman is Anna, who's been a widow for 10 years. She's about to be married, though you sense even now it's hard for her; she still feels a great attachment to her deceased spouse, Sean. At a party announcing her engagement to Joseph (Danny Huston), a 10-year-old boy appears and announces to Anna that he's Sean, her husband.

Sure, there's skepticism, but not nearly enough; soon more people than you could imagine begin to think this can somehow be true. This is a film in which no one in the rather large ensemble acts logically. No one.

The screenwriters don't help, because they never satisfactorily explain anything. At first, cloning or reincarnation seems at play, but then again, maybe not. And then a con game seems to be in the works. But I guess not. What the heck?

We could possibly buy "Birth" as a bizarre romantic fable, in the tradition of "Somewhere in Time," if we ever perceived a modicum of romance. But young Sean (Cameron Bright) is a gloomy, mean-spirited cuss, more like "The Omen" than a loving husband. If he loves Anna so much, why is he tormenting her?

I'm sorry, but this movie just doesn't make sense or connect emotionally; I can only assume Kidman and co-stars Huston, Lauren Bacall, Anne Heche and the others got involved because director Jonathan Glazer previously made the wonderful "Sexy Beast," with Oscar nominee Ben Kingsley as a snarling gangster. Glazer is one for two.