Birth
Posted By Lonesome Loser on January 17, 2009
*SPOILER WARNING: All film discussions may include information that would spoil the ending for viewers who have not yet seen the film.
Birth (2004), starring Nicole Kidman and Cameron Bright, is IMHO an understated and under-appreciated film on the complexities of one-sided love. Nicole Kidman is Anna, a wealthy New York socialite about to be married for the second time. Cameron Bright is Sean, a 10 year old boy who claims he is the reincarnation of her dead husband, who had also been named Sean. The movie is focused around this question, with Anna moving gradually toward believing Sean is a reincarnation of her first husband. However, as we find out later in the film, Sean has been able to convincingly act as if he is the reincarnation of her husband because he discovered a batch of old love letters written by Anna to her husband. What isn’t known to Sean or the viewer at the time is that although the letters are written to her dead husband Sean, they were given unopened to Clara (Anne Heche), Sean’s sister-in-law and lover.
The emotion driving the film is Anna’s unrequited love for her first husband, we just didn’t know the love was unrequited until almost the end. It is this unrequited love that leaves Anna vulnerable to Sean’s fantasy of being her husband’s reincarnation. The film does a marvelous job of capturing the subtleties in Anna’s process of unconsciously entertaining the fantasy of her dead husband being reincarnated before her as this boy, who is so clearly adoring of her. She begins to lose her judgment as the relationship develops, becoming so engrossed in the fantasy that she makes plans to run away with the boy and wait until he is older to start a sexual relationship. She hurts her new fiance terribly in the process and jeopardizes her engagement. After it all unravels, she goes back to her fiance and tries to explain her actions by saying it wasn’t her fault, that she couldn’t have made any other choices than the ones she made when faced with the possibility of the return of her first husband. After recently being in unrequited love, I found myself understanding this viewpoint much more clearly than I did when I first saw the film. She just felt swept up in a process, a love, that put her beyond the ability to see consequences or choices clearly. In fact, at the end of the film Anna is still working on fully integrating the emotional awareness of her first husband’s death. While posing for her second wedding’s pictures, she becomes overwhelmed with grief and runs to the beach, emotions raw and bleeding. Again, this is a scene I did not reallly “get” when I first saw the film, but is much more clear to me now as I’ve been in unrequited love.
The funny thing is, her first husband was not a particularly likeable person. He cheated on her with his brother’s wife, kept his wife in the dark about his cheating, was emotionally distant from his brother, and generally gave the impression of being selfish and unloving. But these were qualities overlooked by Anna, or just plain not perceived. One of the last scenes in the film is Anna’s mother saying to Sean (the boy), in a manner that underscores the difference between Anna’s fantasy versus the reality of who her husband was, “You know, I never liked Sean.”
Another example of unrequited love in the film is Sean’s love for Anna. He falls in love with her and truly believes he is the reincarnation of her dead husband. The film does not make clear what might be going on with Sean that would leave him vulnerable to such a fantasy, although he does seem to be an unusually mature and lonely boy. I found myself not questioning the boy’s love for Anna. His love was not easily dismissed, persevered despite negative consequences and much resistance from those around him, and was characterized by a combination of adoration and intimacy expressed by fervent lovers and would-be lovers everywhere.
As always, please leave comments, offer your own opinions, suggest other films for us to discuss…
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