Birthday Girl seems to have split alot of critics right down the middle and quite honestly I'd like to take the critics who went thumbs down on this quirky gem and split them down the middle with an ax. I really can't understand how any self-respecting critic can look at this unusual, tragic and tender little film and not fall in love with it.

Ben Chaplin plays a lonely Bank executive whose love life is bleak enough to the point where he becomes obsessed with ordering a Russian bride via the internet. He lives in a secluded countryside region 40 miles from London, has no friends and when Nadia (Nicole Kidman) arrives his life is soon turned upside down. First of all Nadia does not speak English, which Chaplin was assured she did and during this dialogue-free period acquaintance, Kidman does some of the best acting of her career. A performance that I would rank as her second best next to The Hours.

As it turns out Chaplin has a few secrets (he is interested in certain kinky sexual proclivities, which Nadia discovers during a snoop and happily indulges him in at her first opportunity). This is a very adult film, with a good bit of nudity and sexual content and certainly a brave performance on Kidman's part. And as for Chaplin his turn is restrained and deadpan, and it's surprising we don't see more of him.

Now, this comprises about the first third of the movie. To tell you a single thing about the remainder would be an unforgivable spoiler and since I highly recommend this film I'm keeping it to myself. I will say that things take a strange turn, and that it becomes a rather exciting thriller, and above all a skewed and brilliantly rendered love story.

To be fair to the soul-less creeps who didn't like this film, there is one slight lapse of plausibility and I will admit that one major part of the plot was quite predictable. But screw those fools who didn't like it - they wouldn't know cinematic art from the Cat in the Hat. Go see Birthday Girl, go rent it, this is a wonderfully rewarding film that deserves to be seen and enjoyed.