Birth (2004)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Dolby Digital Trailer-Rain Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	96:00
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Jonathan Glazer
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Nicole Kidman Cameron Bright Danny Huston Lauren Bacall Alison Elliott Arliss Howard Michael Desautels Anne Heche Peter Stormare Ted Levine Cara Seymour Scott Johnsen Joe M. Chalmers
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$39.95	Music	Alexandre Desplat

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Birth is the second feature from British Director Jonathon Glazer after the very different Sexy Beast in 2000. Glazer also co-wrote the intriguing screenplay for Birth with Jean-Claude Carrière and Milo Addica.

   The film opens with a truly memorable scene that sets the foundation for the entire film. Sean (Michael Desautels) is a lonely, faceless figure jogging down snow-covered paths in New York's Central Park. He suddenly collapses and dies at the entrance to a tunnel in a scene that's full of sublime, yet ironic, beauty.

    The story moves ahead ten years. Anna (Nicole Kidman) stands mournful over her husband's headstone. The death of Sean was devastating to her and it is only recently that she has felt enough closure to accept a proposal of marriage from Joseph (Danny Huston).

    As guests arrive at the lavish apartment to celebrate the couple's engagement, a young ten-year-old boy (Cameron Bright) sits alone in the lobby, bouncing a ball. The boy notices a woman, Clara (Ann Heche), also sitting alone, holding a wrapped box. He then follows her out into the night and watches as she mysteriously buries the box in the garden.

     Days later, the boy manages to enter the apartment of Anna's mother, Eleanor (Lauren Bacall) who is celebrating her birthday with family and a few friends. He slips inside undetected and boldly asks to speak with Anna in private. The boy informs Anna that his name is Sean and that he is the reincarnation of her dead husband. Anna dismisses young Sean's revelations outright and escorts him from the apartment building.

    At first young Sean's appearance is treated with curiosity and even humour, but the persistence of his actions in stalling the wedding and the knowledge he seems to possess becomes overwhelming and quite frightening. Sean is able to relate information about Anna's life with eerie accuracy.

    In another brilliantly staged scene, the camera is held for a considerable time on Anna's face while she sits in the audience of a concert. She becomes overwhelmed by the circumstances of the situation and the realization that this young boy could possibly be the reincarnation of her dead husband. With Wagner's intense music playing and not a word of dialogue spoken, this scene is simply masterful and is also a testament to the acting ability of Kidman.

    The plot leads to inevitable conflict with Joseph and family members as Anna is drawn into an impossible love affair with her deceased husband through the eyes, body and mind of a child.

    The film's journey into this perilous territory is handled with care and intelligence by Glazer, who always manages to keep the action focused on the premise of the story. Although rather coy in its depiction, a scene involving Anna and the young Sean sitting naked in a bath tub may be considered by some people as a little confronting. I wonder how the censors would have viewed this scene had the sex of the characters been reversed.

    The situation becomes chaotic for Anna as she struggles with conflicting loyalties and to keep a basic grip on her reality. The plot has a few surprises left however, as the contents of the buried box are revealed as well as some startling revelations that will add some ambiguity to young Sean's claims.

   While the film certainly won't appeal to everyone, those who can ride with its concept will find Birth a richly rewarding film experience.

Video

    The video transfer for Birth is quite impressive.

    The transfer is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    A very good level of sharpness and clarity complements the transfer, although some scenes exhibited varying amounts of grain. Compare the superb clarity at 4:18 against the grainy images at 31:47 and 42:55 . Blacks also varied from very deep and clean to exhibiting slight amounts of grain. Shadows were generally fine and held good detail.

    Birth's superb opening scenes are rich in wonderful earthy autumn colours which look totally stunning on the screen. Colours were generally toned down, with very little in the way of vibrant colour used in the film. This keeps with the overall atmosphere of Birth perfectly, while still remaining very natural and well balanced. Colours are beautifully rendered on the disc and displayed no obvious problems.

     I found no evidence of MPEG artefacts. Film-to-video artefacts were also well controlled. The aforementioned grain issues were basically the only significant distraction to the video transfer. Film artefacts were virtually non-existent.

    This DVD features English subtitles for the hearing impaired. They are very accurate and are easily legible in white.

    This disc is a single sided, dual layered disc. The layer change occurs very discreetly at 54:22 and is well disguised. I didn't notice the change on my first viewing of the film and needed to use software to locate it.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio transfer for Birth is suitably subtle, but effective.

    There are two audio tracks available on the DVD; English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) and English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s).

    Dialogue quality was clear for the most part, although I did have trouble understanding a couple of lines of dialogue that were spoken rather softly. I found no significant issues with audio sync.

   The music score by Alexandre Desplat is simply awesome, especially during the film's opening scene in Central Park. Whimsical melodies are blended beautifully with dramatic elements to create a piece of music that emphasises this very important scene perfectly without one word of dialogue. Desplat's score for Birth is also a wonderful stand-alone piece of music. Also incorporated into the soundtrack is some music by Richard Wagner including Die Walküre: Erster Aufzug, which is used to brilliant effect during the concert scene.

    The activity of the surround channels was concentrated mainly around the music score. The 5.1 audio track uses the soundstage perfectly during the concert scene. Because the film is very dialogue driven, much of the audio was front based, with little direct sound placement.

   The subwoofer highlights the bass elements of the score very well.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

   The lack of decent extras apart from the trailer is disappointing. These are obviously being saved for a special edition sometime in the future.

Menu

   The menus for Birth are superb. The main menu features some wonderfully subtle animation combined with a sample of Alexandre Desplat's brilliant score. All menus are 16x9 enhanced with Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) audio.

Theatrical Trailer - Birth (1:48)

Dolby Digital - Rain Trailer (0:33)

   The R1 release of Birth is very similar to this R4 version, with a couple of very minor differences.

   The R1 version also features Spanish subtitles and five trailers for other titles.

   Unless the presence of Spanish subtitles is essential to you, I would stick with this R4 version due to the superior quality of the PAL transfer.

    Birth is a stunningly beautiful film that tends to linger in your thoughts long after it is finished.

    The performances are all first class, as is Harris Savides' superb cinematography.

     The video and audio transfers are both very good.

     The meagre inclusion of a single trailer is disappointing. Hopefully a special edition featuring a decent selection of extras will be released sometime in the future.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall