BIRTHDAY GIRL

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Ben Chaplin, Vincent Cassel and Mathieu Kassovitz Co-
Writer/Director: Jez Butterworth
Running Time: 90 mins
Certificate: 15

Bank clerk John (Chaplin) lives alone in St Albans and finds it really hard to find himself a girlfriend. Taking matters into his own hands, John orders himself an Internet bride from Russia and after exchanging letters and a large sum of money he heads off to the airport to meet his future wife. As the flight from Moscow arrives, a very nervous John is greeted by Nadia (Kidman), who while very beautiful, doesn't look like the girl he ordered. On the drive home he discovers she smokes and most importantly doesn't speak any English. Unable to get in touch with the agency that sent her over, John is stuck with her but over time and with a little help from her sexual appetite, the two become close. This all changes on Nadia's birthday when her cousin Yuri (Kassovitz) and his friend Alexei (Cassel) arrive in St Albans.

After sitting on the shelf for two years, Birthday Girl is released to try and cash in on Nicole Kidman's newly found popularity. The problem is that is should be still on the shelf, gathering dust. For a romantic comedy there are very few laughs and nothing to really draw you into the characters and their situation.

Nicole Kidman does do a very good Russian accent and convincingly speaks the language throughout the movie. Ben Chaplin looks sufficiently geeky to be a lonely bank clerk but the character isn't interesting enough for you to care about his predicament. The casting of Vincent Cassel and Mathieu Kassovitz as Russians isn't very believable as they are French and really look like they are. Look out for cameos from The League of Gentlemen, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, and comedians Armstrong and Miller but heaven knows what they are doing in the movie.

This is just another British crime comedy that should have really gone straight to video and without Kidman's good performance it would have been a complete disaster.

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