Well, I had a hard time convincing anyone to see Birth with me. I had to wait until I had an alone night, and to be honest, I wasn't expecting much given the very low profile this movie got in cinemas. But I was absolutely thrilled with it. The movie, better known as "the-one-where-Nicole-Kidman-takes-a-bath-with-a little-boy," is kind of an old-fashioned drama. While the pacing is slow, the tension builds steadily enough to keep you riveted.

Without giving away much, Anna (aka Nicole) is confronted by a young boy claiming to be the reincarnated version of her dead husband. We find all this out in the first ten minutes. Anna, who's been mourning for ten years and is about to remarry, doesn't believe him at first. But as the child insists, begging her not to remarry, she starts to wonder. There's a wonderful scene where Anna's watching a symphony with her fiance. The camera stays on her face for several minutes and though she hardly changes expressions, we see a dramatic shift as she begins to wonder, hope, fear, believe that maybe it's really him. It was a great reminder that Nicole Kidman really can act. A frumpy Anne Heche and a still exquisite Lauren Bacall also put in good performances. And the child, well, he's near-perfect, conveying the requisite adult characteristics that lead Anna to believe him without being overly precocious.

I was fairly sure I'd be disappointed with the end, since it's hard to tie up these kind of stories satisfactorily. But it doesn't disappoint either. I like movies that keep me thinking afterwards and this one did: What would you do if that happened? Would you believe him? Would you wait for him? Is there only one person for all of us, or is love more about timing and a confluence of circumstances? How well do we know ourselves and why we fall in love, and keep on loving someone?

While this isn't exactly a date movie, and it's certainly not a comedy, it is a nice piece of New York society cinema that's worth a second look.