Review of Birthday Girl

Introduction

Starring Ben Chaplin, probably best remembered as Matthew from the first series of the excellent and under-rated BBC sitcom Game On, but he soon moved on to bigger things with his first feature The Truth about Cats and Dogs, opposite Uma Thurman.

The story has been mis-sold in some parts as some kind of thriller, when it`s really a black comedy, laced with lots of Britishness, including scenes in a motorway service station - not something you often see on film!

Video

An excellent 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer which lacks damage and dirt and looks as good as any modern film on DVD. It`s a little dark at times, but it`s supposed to be intentional.

The film was shot on location in the UK and Sydney, a year apart - some scenes contain shots from both shoots but you can`t tell. Sydney`s Kingsford-Smith Airport makes a good double for a UK airport, but if you`ve ever visited it then you`ll spot the obvious giveaways.

All of this jumping around between locations and dates is hidden perfectly on screen - if you didn`t know it was happening then you wouldn`t work it out from watching the film.

Audio

A solid DD5.1 soundtrack which never has loads to do, but what it does have to do it does well. Mostly used for atmospheric effects as there`s not a great deal of booming and banging going on. Dialogue is clean and crisp at all times, but there`s a lot of it that`s not English - you get to listen to 2 Frenchmen and an Australian all doing Russian accents. There are plenty of opportunities for you to decide which one is best!

Features

Unlike the region 1 DVD, we get a nice little wodge of extras. We start out with the commentary track, featuring writer & director Jez Butterworth and star Ben Chaplin. This is an excellent track as the 2 are friends and are at ease with each other in the commentary booth. They talk about all aspects of the film, shooting in different locations and years, dodgy haircuts, working with Nicole Kidman, and little bits and pieces on screen that you might have missed first time round.

We also get about 20 minutes of interviews shabbily put together from the EPK. These annoyed me since you see the interviewees on screen and see them saying something or laughing, but the sound has been muted until they start their next sentence. Why couldn`t we just have had all of the interview without the silly muting and on screen captioning.

Behind the scenes footage is up next - this is just some video camera footage from filming and is nothing exciting. You can also watch the music video for Something Stupid, featuring Nicole and Robbie Williams.

Finally there are trailers for the film and other DVDs.

Conclusion

This film has received mixed reactions around the world, but I enjoyed it a lot. I think that the attempt to sell the film as a thriller sent people to watch it with the wrong ideas. It`s definitely black comedy, and it`s definitely got some very funny moments. Most of them are from Chaplin, who gets a role with some similarities to the one he had in Game On, and he plays it well again.

The French and Antipodean Russians are quite convincing, although they do slip into a bit of a stereotypical vodka swilling caricature at times. The film does lose its way now and again, but just manages to claw its way back in the end.

The disc itself is a great package - top picture and sound backed up by a great commentary and some other average extras. All in all this is well worth a rental and fans of either of the two leads might just want to keep it for a bit longer.

Recommended.