WhatzUp

Birthday Girl
by Derek Neff

Ben Chaplin (The Truth About Cats and Dogs) plays mild-mannered banker John Buckingham, a man so lonely and desperate for a wife that he resorts to getting one through an internet service that sends mail-order brides from Russia. Soon enough, his bride-to-be, Nadia (Nicole Kidman) arrives at the London airport where John picks her up, and they’re on their way. However, it soon becomes clear that Nadia doesn’t speak a word of English, and John isn’t sure what to do next. He calls the internet service to complain, but no one returns his calls. Meanwhile, back at his home, Nadia and John stare at each other. Until they realize there’s something they can do that requires no talking ...

The first third of Birthday Girl plays as quirky comedy, which slowly morphs into a somewhat coy exploration of John’s rather kinky sexual fantasies, which slowly morphs into ...

Oh, but I don’t want to tell you. What comes next is best kept a secret. The modest pleasures the movie offers arise mainly from the minor surprises planted throughout. Writer/director Jez Butterworth has done a fine job of bobbing and weaving his way through familiar territory — a movie from earlier this year, Original Sin, touched on similar themes — in such a way that we are still regularly taken off-guard. At first I thought Chaplin might be the wrong guy to play the part of a nerdy loner (I’m told he’s quite handsome and charming), but he pulls it off, and in any case his character undergoes such a transformation that who he is at the beginning is quite different from whom he becomes. (I was reminded of the transformation that Jeff Daniels’ character underwent in Something Wild.) As shaky as Chaplin’s role might be, there’s no question that Kidman, who delivers a fine performance throughout, is perfectly right for the role of Nadia.

Birthday Girl is alternately funny and suspenseful, and is well worth a look.