Birthday Girl
Dir: Jez Butterworth
2001
*
Birthday Girl is a strange fish. It screams 'This is a Film4 production' for the first half an hour, then gets good then turns into a semi-comedy/semi-violent thriller. I like Ben Chaplin but I don't think he's ever reached his full potential. Nicole Kidman was a bit of a coup as far as casting goes but the inclusion of Vincent Cassel and Mathieu Kassovitz should have made this an awesome thriller, come to think of it on the other hand the inclusion of British TV comedy favourites such as Alexander Armstrong, Ben Miller, Stephen Mangan, Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith should have made it an awesome comedy caper but neither transpired. The ending was slow, silly and uninspired. *Spoilers* He left England as a Bank Robber (even though he didn't really rob it) and left with £90,000. A lot of money sure but he left a £30,000 a year job and a three bedroom house in St Albans which would easily be worth £300,000, not to mention his classic MG that, even though it broke down, could fetch 2-3,000. Daft.