Birth
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Year Released: 2004
Rating: 3.0
I was reminded, while watching this film, of a special I saw on one of the nightly news programs about a young boy who claimed to be reincarnated from a WWII pilot - the boy knew things about planes and military life that he couldn't have learned in any way, and with a little research, even found out the name of the person he once 'was.' Using this concept, Glazer has made one of the finest metaphysical films I've seen since Frailty, a movie that works precisely because of the will of its conviction. Yes, it does take a nose-dive in the last act, where it runs out of places to go (I, for one, found the Anne Heche subplot to be a bit muddled), but up until then I was absolutely engrossed. So few films tackle topics such as spirituality and the idea of returning to earthly form after death - Bergman and Tarkovsky were two filmmakers unafraid to try to address the same questions - that the austerity of this proved a pleasant surprise.
