Release Date:
Friday, February 1, 2002
This is a perfect example of what happens when the people who designed the poster werent let into any of the creative meetings. Why else would they give a quirky, dead-pan, dark comedy a poster that makes it look like its Joe Eszterhas latest pussy-and-knives thriller? Regardless, Birthday Girl is a pretty entertaining little movie.
Once you get past the fact that an Australian and two Frenchmen are all playing Russians, the movie manages to be funny in a very British wayuptight and straight-faced even while heading into goofball territory. John Buckingham (Ben Chaplin) is a dorky, English (we know, redundant) bank employee who orders a bride from the From Russia With Love Web site. When she arrives (in the form of a dark-haired Nicole Kidman), he soon discovers that shes not the woman the site said she was. Before long, the couple are set upon by her two cousins, played by Brotherhood of the Wolfs Vincent Cassel and Amelies Mathieu Kassovitz. The trio manage pretty well with the Russian language, and Chaplin is solid as the put-upon schlub whos reaction to the strange turn of events is, well, pretty realistic. Although Birthday Girl leaves a few questions unanswered and takes liberties with coincidence and circumstances, its all pretty watchable.
Once you get past the fact that an Australian and two Frenchmen are all playing Russians, the movie manages to be funny in a very British wayuptight and straight-faced even while heading into goofball territory. John Buckingham (Ben Chaplin) is a dorky, English (we know, redundant) bank employee who orders a bride from the From Russia With Love Web site. When she arrives (in the form of a dark-haired Nicole Kidman), he soon discovers that shes not the woman the site said she was. Before long, the couple are set upon by her two cousins, played by Brotherhood of the Wolfs Vincent Cassel and Amelies Mathieu Kassovitz. The trio manage pretty well with the Russian language, and Chaplin is solid as the put-upon schlub whos reaction to the strange turn of events is, well, pretty realistic. Although Birthday Girl leaves a few questions unanswered and takes liberties with coincidence and circumstances, its all pretty watchable.