First Thoughts on "Birth"
A podcast about the great movie years.
Jonathan Glazer’s Birth opens with a voice-over on a black screen, pooh-poohing the notion of reincarnation, before moving into a long, high-angle tracking shot as the body behind that voice goes on his wintry run through Central Park. The title pops up, and then he drops dead. It is, as they say in the biz, a grabber.
In fact, there’s something vaguely menacing and unsettling about all of the early scenes, even though nothing particularly sinister is going on. Ten years pass. Anna (Nicole Kidman) is the widow of Sean, the man who died in that opening; she’s visiting his gravesite as her new boyfriend Joseph (Danny Huston) looks on. And then they’re off to their ritzy Manhattan apartment for a bustling engagement party. Old friends appear. Sean’s brother (Peter Stormare) warmly wishes the couple his best, though his peculiar-acting wife (Anne Heche) never shows up.