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Birthday Girl

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 32 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 6 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Romance
Written by:
Jez Butterworth
Tom Butterworth
Directed by: Jez Butterworth
Release Date:
Theatrical: February 1, 2002
DVD: August 13, 2002
Running Time: 93 minutes, Color
Origin: UK
Summary
RATING: R for sexuality and language
Starring Nicole Kidman, Ben Chaplin, Vincent Cassel, Mathieu Kassovitz, Stephen Mangan, Alexander Armstrong, Mark Gatiss, and Ben Miller
A thriller about a mild-mannered banker (Chaplin) who takes a chance on a Russian mail-order bride (Kidman) arranged via the internet. (Miramax Films)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Variety Deborah Young
Charmingly setting aside glamour for a turn at pure acting, Nicole Kidman zings up the already zingy script of Birthday Girl.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Mark Holcomb
It may not be particularly innovative, but the film's crisp, unaffected style and air of gentle longing make it unexpectedly rewarding.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Nicole Kidman -- continuing the string of remarkable performances that have followed "Eyes Wide Shut" -- finds plenty of fodder in the long-delayed Birthday Girl. A grimy thriller with a wicked streak of humor.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
The actress may get an Oscar nomination for the wrong movie -- "Moulin Rouge" over "The Others" -- but it would be a double misfortune for audiences to overlook a performance that boosts its movie from moderate to memorable.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Rare is the movie that arrives without fanfare -- that sneaks between the cracks, pops up relatively unheralded on the big screen, and takes the viewer by delighted surprise. Well, check the moon for blue because Birthday Girl is just such a picture.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Black comedies are rare enough. Birthday Girl is a member of an even rarer species, the black romantic comedy.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
It's a slight, old-fashioned B movie, the last thing you would expect from an actress coming off a breakout year, but it has a charm and freshness we don't see much these days.
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Butterworth guides us through the world of chaos and romantic confusion he's created as if it's the most natural place in the world. After a while, we actually believe it is.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Keep your eye on Kidman, whose kinky, kittenish performance turns unexpected emotional corners that pull you up short.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Still, it's worth checking out if only to see Kidman immolate everything else on screen through sheer sexy charisma. Tom who?
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Ellen A. Kim
The good news is that Kidman's the best thing in this rather subdued film: sexy, coy and even a bit funny. The bad news is that the movie itself is unlikely to register very long on anyone's radar.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Staff (Not Credited)
If British writer-director Jez Butterworth had let his sophomore picture get as dirty as Kidman's game recklessness invited -- she started this before ''Moulin Rouge'' and ''The Others'' -- he would have served up a tasty piece of cake.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The romantic comedy doesn't have much, but it has Kidman.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Loren King
This bizarre, uneven comedy is notable mostly for the unsettling presence of Nicole Kidman in full, kinky, sex-kitten mode.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A paper-thin wish-fulfillment comedy about escaping small-town repressions and blasting conformity.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The movie runs out of steam before its finish, but she (Kidman) doesn't.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Won't make you forget Kidman's better work, but it's not a film you long to excise from your memory.
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Kidman accomplishes a remarkable feat of transformation, adopting not only an accent, but a slightly seedy, faintly feral demeanor that almost makes you forget her icy good looks and fashion model's figure.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Tim Merrill
Starts out as a first-rate chick movie and winds up a second-rate guy movie. But if this somehow proves to be a formula for the perfect date movie, then Kidman is even more brilliant than we thought.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Quickly devolves into a violent thriller that resolves itself in sadomasochistic romance.
New York Post Lou Lumenick
Ultimately, Birthday Girl disintegrates into a fairly routine -- and brutal -- caper movie.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
There is a curious problem with Birthday Girl, hard to put your finger on: The movie is kind of sour. It wants to be funny and a little nasty, it wants to surprise us and then console us, but what it mostly does is make us restless.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
See it to be reminded (if you need further reminding) of this actress' remarkable range. Otherwise, take a pass.
The New York Times A.O. Scott
This breathless demi-noir has so much bounce that we barely get any time to mull over the gaping holes in its moth-eaten plot. It is competent but extremely slight.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Charles Taylor
It's that sense of ardor that's missing from Ben Chaplin's performance in Birthday Girl.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
There's nothing wrong with beguiling star turns, but I wish this one had been surrounded by more of a movie. Birthday Girl is a harmless trifle that makes 93 minutes go by as if they were hardly more than an hour and a half.
LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
Kidman, who speaks Russian for much of the movie, turns in a technically impeccable performance, but the movie gets far more out of her than she out of it.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Between bad hair and tonal irregularity, the movie doesn't give you much to like.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
The film's Russians are all played by French and Australian actors. Too bad Butterworth didn't find a Russian to play the Brit. That would have made the inauthenticity complete.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
The most subtly revolting aspect of the movie is how it manages to exploit violence for cheap thrills, in part by equating submission with love.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf
It's just that this clunky, inane vehicle sputters barely a few feet down its quaint English highway before you want to bid it "do zvidániya, dumb-ass!"
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jimmi H. gave it an8:
I saw this film by chance - had never heard of it before. Why do great movies like this go unnoticed? It has a great story with several twists, none of which feel forced. Reminds me a bit of the Coen brothers. It seemed a bit weird to have superstar Kidman playing the mystery russian girl, but her performance is really convincing and she gets away with it.
Shannon P. gave it a9:
This movie is astonishingly under-rated. The script is smarter and funnier and more subtle than 99% of what gets made these days. The performances are excellent. Nicole Kidman is a gamer.
Chad S. gave it a 7:
Nicole Kidman is so good here. "Birthday Girl" really ignites in spots after some off-putting overplotting and simply allows Kidman to show a range that grows less surprising with each outing. The first plot twist is rather awkward which threatens watchability for a patch, but then John(Ben Chaplin) and Nadia get to know each other better and the film's onset of modest charm is restored.
