Birthday Girl (2001)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Directed by Jez Butterworth
Written by Tom Butterworth and Jez Butterworth
Starring Nicole Kidman, Ben Chaplin, Vincent Cassel, Mathieu Kassovitz, Kate Lynn Evans

Features:

• Behind the Scenes Featurette
  
• "Something Stupid" Music Video
  

John (Chaplin) lives a very simple lonely life...well...he's a banker. He decides to send off for a mail-order Russian bride. She arrives, but there's a problem: she doesn't speak English. Nadia (Kidman) and John begin the process of trying to have a life together with the Tower of Babel standing between them. Things begin to go wrong when some friends of hers arrive on her birthday to help her celebrate. They stay around a little too long and manage to get John in a whole heap of trouble.

I found this to be a very well written script. The characters are well developed and it really gave the actors a solid base with which to really have some fun with...and they did. Ben Chaplin is infinitely charming as John. He really created a nice sense of loneliness and isolation that would lead someone to ordering a mail-order bride. Nicole Kidman is the actor who really shines in this movie, however. She spends the majority of the film speaking Russian and her accent work is very strong. The supporting actors are exceptional also. The pacing of the film is absolutely flawless. It moves along at a pace that stays just enough ahead of you that it keeps you guessing what's going to happen next. I found this really refreshing. It was nice to not be able to predict everything thirty minutes ahead of time.

The quality of the DVD bonus material is first rate, it's just the quantity is lacking. The extra material consists of a behind-the-scenes featurette, which has some really neat interviews with the cast and crew. There are other topics covered, but it primarily revolves around the fact that this is a movie about Russian mail-order brides and there is not anyone who is Russian working on the film except Kidman's voice coach (who actually just worked at the Russian Embassy in Sydney, Australia).

The "Somethin' Stupid" video is a cover of Frank and Nancy Sinatra's song featuring Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman. I'm normally not a big fan of having music videos as special features on DVDs (since they're mostly either just scenes from the movie or unbelievably lame or both), but in this case, I was pleasantly surprised. The production of the video was great and the song sounded even better.

So I recommend this DVD as a strong rental because the movie should not be missed, but also because what little features there are definitely worth watching, too. If they ever come out with a special edition for this movie, it might be worth owning.