Birthday girl

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Movie
German title Birthday girl
Original title Birthday girl
Country of production USA , UK
original language English , Russian
Publishing year 2002
length 89 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 14
Rod
Director Jez Butterworth
script Tom Butterworth ,
Jez Butterworth
production Steve Butterworth ,
Diana Phillips
music Stephen Warbeck
camera Oliver Stapleton
cut Christopher Tellefsen
occupation

Birthday Girl (alternative title: Birthday Girl - bride to order ; Nadia ) is an American - British fictional film from 2002. It combines the elements of a crime film , a thriller and a comedy film . The director was Jez Butterworth , the writer wrote Tom Butterworth and Jez Butterworth. The main roles were played by Nicole Kidman and Ben Chaplin .

action

John works at a bank in St Albans . By Internet - dating service he wants a Russian woman to know. The shy bank clerk waits for his new bride at London Airport. When he sees her, she is initially not the woman he imagined. Nadia is tall, thin, and lanky with unkempt hair and rings under her eyes.

When the two of them drive home, he notices that she doesn't speak a word of English and is also a chain smoker. John is angry at first and repeatedly calls the agency that Nadia brokered to send her back to Russia. Unfortunately without success. Then he calms down and gets Nadia an English-Russian dictionary . When he puts it on the table, Nadia lays pornographic magazines that she found in John's house on the same table . With a gesture she asks John to tie her up. The two go on to bondage games, in which Nadia is tied up first, then John. He's slowly beginning to change his mind.

Some time later she tells him it is her birthday. At the party in John's house, the Russians Yuri and Alexei appear out of nowhere. Nadia introduces Yuri as her cousin and Alexei as his friend. They're celebrating, and John actually likes them both. So they stay with him for a few days. Until Alexei is very rough on a trip to a nearby lake to Nadia and she rudely dives under water several times. John absolutely does not like this. He asks Yuri and Alexei to go the next morning. That morning John learns that these are criminals; they threaten to hurt Nadia and want a ransom. To pay for this, John robbed his bank. The kidnapping turns out to be fake, Alexei as Nadia's friend.

They take John prisoner, strip him down to his underpants and tie him to the bathroom in a motel they went to earlier. Yuri reveals to John that he is not the first the trio to cheat on and shows him a few Polaroid photos of men from different parts of Europe who previously "ripped off" them. He manages to break free and discovers Nadia, who was left tied up after confessing her pregnancy to Alexei. He loosens her bonds and there is a violent scramble. He injured her lip in the process, and she uttered an English sentence for the first time. So John registers that she has a good command of the English language.

At breakfast that followed, she confesses that her real name is not Nadia. First John wants to hand her over to the police, but changes his decision when he realizes her pregnancy. Since she has a plane ticket to Russia, he helps her get to the airport. On the way there, the two get to know each other better and slowly develop an affection for each other. After saying goodbye to Nadia, he can watch her being kidnapped by Alexei. John follows them on foot to a nearby motel. With Nadia's help, he manages to overpower Alexei. With Alexei's passport and the money from the bank robbery, John and Nadia, whose real name is Sofia, fly to Moscow together .

Reviews

James Berardinelli wrote on ReelViews that Nicole Kidman was never "hotter" than in this film. He also wrote that the film was not as "romantic" as the film Moulin Rouge and not as "brilliant" as the comedy Lies have long legs . Berardinelli claimed that the main problem with the film was that while nothing was fundamentally wrong, nothing was fundamentally right either. There is a touch of humor, action and romance in the film, but not enough of any element to arouse the viewer's interest.

The lexicon of international films says: "A well-played mixture of romance and gangster comedy, which in its extravagant and artificial way is quite convincing and condenses to reflect on cultural prejudices."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Age rating for birthday girl . Youth Media Commission .
  2. ↑ a b Birthday Girl in the Lexicon of International Films Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used
  3. ^ Review by James Berardinelli