Birthday Girl

Romantic thriller with Ben Chaplin as a lovelorn English banker who takes a punt on a Russian mail order bride via the internet. His love connection transpires to be Naida (Kidman) and all seems to be going well until Naida’s Russian ‘cousins’ Yura (Kassovitz) and Alexei (Cassel) arrive unexpectedly to help celebrate her birthday. Suddenly, Chaplin’s existence is more than a little disrupted and he finds himself embroiled in a plot to rob the bank where he works.

Despite the premise, if you are expecting Birthday Girl to be regular rom-com fare you might well be taken aback. Though it takes a little while to get into the film’s sense of humour or to like the characters, it manages to defy conventions fairly successfully throughout a tight (albeit often dialogue free) script. Certainly, the Russian accents can be annoying – but once you grasp where the plot is going, this becomes a forgivable offence.

In addition, the frequently overrated Kidman acquits herself well in a role turn that revisits similar territory to that explored by her still finest hour; To Die For – while Chaplin does a fine job with the radical character transformation required by his role.

Granted, this very European flick may not be massively accessible, but Birthday Girl is refreshing in terms of characterisation and plot.