Birth/Rebirth review.
A more personal take on the resurrection of Frankenstein’s Monster…Birth/Rebirth examines the high cost of bringing death to life.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Birth/Rebirth
Directed by Laura Moss
Screenplay by Laura Moss and Brendan J. O’Brien
Starring Marin Ireland, Judy Reyes, Monique Gabriela Curnen, Breeda Wool, LaChanze, Bryant Carroll, Ezra Barnes and A.J. Lister
Birth/Rebirth Review
We’ve discussed the story of Frankenstein a time or two…or three. A recurring theme in adaptations of Mary Shelley’s masterwork has been the meaning of bringing death to life. Birth/Rebirth instead shifts focus to the cost of doing it. It’s a take that fits perfectly with the film’s characters and setup. This version of the story strips away the tesla coils and lightning strikes…replacing them with flesh and blood. A personal view of motherhood, birth and…obviously…rebirth. Look at Birth/Rebirth as the story of carrying death through a pregnancy term. You already know what’s going to happen when the monster is (re)born. The story doesn’t change. The focus does.
Celie (Judy Reyes) is a nurse and mother to six-year-old Lila (A.J. Lister). When Lila dies from a sudden illness, Celie is completely lost. After discovering that Lila’s body has been lost, she seeks out Rose (Marin Ireland) the morgue pathologist who was the last to be in contact with it. What she finds changes both women’s lives forever.
Celie may not know what happened to her daughter’s body before she enters Rose’s apartment…but we do. As Celie is leaving the hospital following her daughter’s death…we see Rose loading an especially heavy suitcase into her car. Celie sees this too…but has no reason to assume something so ghastly. We can easily assume it based on what little time we’ve spent with Rose by that point of the movie. She is a cold, socially awkward, driven, and off-putting person. And a genius. Combined they share Dr. Frankenstein’s worst traits. Not knowing what will happen…and not asking if you should.
Rose never thinks about the consequences of her actions. She milks a stranger for sperm to impregnate herself (more on that later) and considers being an organ doner license to play guinea pig to her experiments. Actually…a literal pig serves as a proto experiment. Rose brought the pig back to life after three days and has now moved onto human trials. As Celie finds when she busts into Rose’s home looking for answers.
Lila lays in a bed inside the home…attached to a respirator and monitors. She’s alive. She’s in a vegetative state…but she’s alive. Celie is quick to come on board for Rose’s experiment. It makes sense. What mother wouldn’t be? The two women work together to watch over Lila…gathering the material needed to care for her from their hospital. Some of those materials include fetal tissue used in a serum that fuels Lila’s recovery. That’s where Rose’s trips to public bathrooms to acquire semen come into play. As a match for Lila’s genetic needs…Rose induces pregnancy to acquire the tissue needed.
After an illness strips Rose of her ability to conceive…desperation begins to creep in. There are limited genetic matches and the question of how far Rose will go for science…and Celie will go for her daughter. Right and wrong are further blurred as Lila begins to show strong progress. The greatest scientific achievement in human history…and the return of a mother’s child…can cause a person to justify a lot of choices.
The physical and emotional pain that both women are willing to endure in the name of their project is only challenged by the lengths they will go complete it. This is where Birth/Rebirth finds a new avenue to traverse in the Frankenstein story. A far more personal journey is on display for both women than we’ve seen before. The cost of body and soul is high. What brings the movie to life is the great, measured performances from Reyes and Ireland. A far more realistic depiction than the mad scientist we are used to seeing. A far more personal and moving depiction.
It’s rare to see a new vision of an old story as lived in as the one offered by Birth/Rebirth. A haunting story that only hints at the meaning of what Rose and Celie are doing. We already know what it means. Bringing death to life only ever means one thing. What makes Birth/Rebirth so compelling is its discussion about the cost of doing it in the first place. Is there any side of the Frankenstein story that is worth it? To a brilliant scientist? Perhaps….perhaps not. To the mother of a lost child? I think we already know the answer.
Scare Value
Birth/Rebirth wisely focuses its story on the aspect of Mary Shelley’s creation that best fits the personal nature of creating life. Consider the story here the pregnancy term before birthing a child. Or the science behind Dr. Frankenstein reanimating his Monster. While the story itself has been well tread…Birth/Rebirth finds a fresher, more personal, angle.
4/5
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