I am your husband…

This was one of the most unsettling movies I have watched in a long long time…Birth - starring (and I mean that) Nicole Kidman, is the story of a woman who is rebuilding her life after losing her first husband. As she reaches the point of remarrying (to a slightly menacing Danny Huston), she meets a young boy who claims to be her dead husband. What follows is the most amazing portrayal of a woman consumed by grief – and who really cannot let go of her first love.

The boy is a distraction really – this film is not about the boy, or the vintage star turn from Lauren Bacall as the domineering dowager of the family. Its all about Kidman, who sparkles throughout. The cinematography is slow and patient, and truly allows her to dominate the screen and the screenplay…there is one momentous scene where the camera settles on her face for a full two minutes, in a crowded concert hall – she is the only the character on the screen as we see her realise just how connected she is to this little boy. When she ends up sharing a bath with the boy, you know that she really has decided her own fate – the final scene by the sea is almost ethereal, but caps the film off with a number of unanswered questions. The camera work is matched by a superb score – percussive, classical music provides an amazing backdrop to the slow, and mostly beautiful visuals. I loved this film, and woke up this morning still thinking about the ending, and the reasoning. 10 out of 10.