Birth is a 2004 psychological drama directed by Jonathan Glazer, starring Nicole Kidman, Cameron Bright, and Danny Huston. The unsettling story follows a 10-year-old boy who claims to be the reincarnation of a woman’s dead husband. The premise is interesting, but it definitely trips up on some logic through the movie. I’d love to hear your opinions in the comments section below. Here’s the plot and ending of the movie Birth explained; spoilers explained.
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Birth Movie: Plot Explained
Anna (Nicole Kidman), a widow who lost her husband Sean ten years prior, is preparing to marry Joseph (Danny Huston). A young boy, also named Sean (Cameron Bright), appears and tells Anna that she cannot marry Joseph because he is her deceased husband, Sean, reincarnated. Initially, they think it’s a boy playing a mean joke and send him away. However, over the days to come, Sean remains persistent and continues to reach out to Anna. The family tries to cross-question him about facts from the past, and surprisingly, he seems to get a lot of answers right.
While the rest of the family shrugs it off, Anna begins to believe that Sean is a reincarnation of her husband, leading to some very uncomfortable scene in a bathtub. But finally, the young boy is confronted by the dead Sean’s lover, Clara. Young Sean knows nothing about that secret affair, proving that he’s been spinning a story about the rebirth. The ending of the movie Birth sees Sean confessing he was infatuated with Anna and hence came up with his story. Anna and Joseph get married, and Sean gets his much-needed therapy.
Now that we have the plot out of the way let’s answer some of the pressing questions the film raises.
Birth Movie: Frequently Asked Questions
Is the ten-year-old boy really Sean reincarnated in Birth?
Hell no! Young Sean is a troubled kid and needs therapy. He comes up with an elaborate lie because he is infatuated with Anna, a person who lives in the same building as the one young Sean’s dad visits regularly to tutor someone. As young Sean waited for his dad to finish tutoring, he happened to see Anna passing by on her way to her apartment. Which is why young Sean knows exactly where Anna lives.
Birth: Why did young Sean lie about being reborn?
We can assume that young Sean has been visiting the building for a while and has slowly become infatuated with Anna during the time he spent waiting for his father. When he finds his opportunity, he walks up to Anna and claims he’s her dead husband. It’s really chilling that a child could do something like this.
Birth: Who is Clara, and how does she find out about young Sean’s lie?
Clara is the wife of dead Sean’s best man, Clifford. Back in the day, Sean and Clara were having an affair, but Sean could never get himself to leave Anna for Clara, and because of this, Clara has always been jealous of Anna. When she meets young Sean, she too hopes that he is an incarnation. However, young Sean does not recognize Clara because their relationship was a secret affair. This is a dead giveaway for Clara, as young Sean doesn’t recognize her.
What was in the box that Clara buried in the park in Birth?
Back in the day, Anna had written a bunch of love letters to her husband, Sean. But Sean was in love with Clara, so he never opens or reads these letters. And as proof of his love for Clara, he hands Clara all of these letters unopened to let her know that he doesn’t care for the contents. Clara holds on to these letters and her grudge for Anna. When Anna throws an engagement party, Clara initially decides she’s going to gift all those letters to Anna to wreck everything. Given it’s been ten years, it’s obviously a terrible idea, so she heads to the park and buries the gift box.
How did young Sean know so many intimate details about Anna’s life in Birth?
Young Sean, who is in the lobby, sees Clara leaving, so he follows her and watches her bury the box. After Clara goes back, Sean sneaks up and digs up the box. He opens and reads all the letters and gets to know a lot of intimate details about the dead Sean and his then-wife, Anna. Young Sean uses this information to concoct a story that he is the reincarnation of Anna’s deceased husband.
Birth: Why did the original Sean give Clara Anna’s unopened love letters?
Sean’s decision to not open Anna’s love letters shows that he really doesn’t care about her feelings. And then, giving those letters over to his mistress is a harsh move that highlights how dismissive he is toward Anna’s emotions. Clara sees this as a sign of devotion, but it actually reveals the deceptive and selfish nature of Sean’s actions toward both women.
Think about it, using those unopened letters as props for his mistress just drives home Sean’s indifference to Anna, knowing well that Anna is madly in love with him. Yet he doesn’t leave her for Clara. What is to say that Sean doesn’t really love Clara either and is just treating her as a sexual thrill.
Why did young Sean confess to Anna and say, “I’m not Sean, because I love you”?
The cat is out of the bag. Young Sean gets to know that dead Sean didn’t really love Anna and was cheating on her. Young Sean started off his elaborate lie because he thinks he loves Anna. So, the two narratives no longer align. Besides, Clara has already caught him red-handed with the letters, and young Sean can’t continue with his lie. So he confesses to Anna saying that he was lying. However, to save Anna from further grief, young Sean doesn’t bring up that dead Sean cheated on Anna with Clara.
Why was Anna so willing to believe the boy’s claim, even considering a future with him when he became an adult?
This is the central theme of the movie, exploring grief and its impact on a person’s behaviour.
Unresolved Grief and Trauma: After ten years of mourning Sean, Anna finds it hard to move on. She confesses to Clara and Clifford that she can’t get him out of her system, leaving a significant gap in her life.
Unhappiness with Joseph: Her relationship with Joseph feels passionless and forced. Although she eventually says yes to marrying him, it’s clear that her feelings for him don’t match the love she had for Sean.
Young Sean’s Uncanny Knowledge: The boy’s ability to share personal details about her past makes his claim hard for her to dismiss, drawing her in deeper. Remember, Anna knows nothing about the letters.
Desire for Fantasy and Second Chances: Anna really wants to believe in the idea of getting her idealized love for Sean back. Let’s not forget Clara was hoping for this, too. Yeah, it’s yuck! Let’s acknowledge that as well, but their emotional state makes them more likely to buy into the boy’s claims, aligning with their deepest wishes.
What happens to Anna and Joseph’s marriage after the events with young Sean?
After young Sean shows up claiming to be Anna’s deceased husband, it really messes with her engagement to Joseph, sparking jealousy and tension. Ultimately, Anna tells Joseph she’s sorry, and they go ahead with their beach wedding. But their marriage isn’t exactly on solid ground—it’s more about obligation than real love. Anna seems to be marrying out of duty, while Joseph might just be in love with the idea of her.
Right after the ceremony, Anna walks into the ocean in distress, struggling to let go of the original Sean. They first met on a beach. Joseph finds her and brings her back, but their marriage feels shaky, starting off with a lot of unhappiness and unresolved feelings.
How did young Sean know where the original Sean died in the park?
Young Sean could have overheard gossip because his father was a tutor in Anna’s apartment building. Young Sean perhaps heard of a bridge. Once he tells Anna, “You know where”, young Sean could have tailed Anna to the spot, gotten to the other side of the bridge, and met her there. Honestly, this falls into the basket of Plot Holes rather than opening the theory box labelled “Perhaps It Was A Reincarnation”. With that, let’s talk about the logical flaws in the film.
Birth Movie: Plot Holes Explained
Apart from questions like how Young Sean knew about the exact location of Old Sean’s death, some very hard-to-digest plot elements make the film Birth a questionable script.
Not Questioning The Boy Enough
First of all, if a boy showed up in any of our houses claiming to be a close dead relative reborn, we’d easily be able to assert if the child is telling the truth or not based on just a few questions. Even if the child answers the first couple of questions correctly, a series of further questions on that topic will reveal there are no real answers the kid has to give.
For instance, “Where did you first meet Anna”. “The beach”. “What did you guys talk about?” or “What did you guys do after?”. That second question will clearly highlight that young Sean doesn’t know more. But the characters in Birth are constantly blocked by the script of the movie, which doesn’t let them use a little bit of common sense to question further. Heck, the time we’re shown Anna getting to the bridge to talk to young Sean is way longer than the actual conversation she has with him! The audience has more questions than the characters in the film.
Not Questioning The Boy Enough AGAIN
Soon as Anna gets to to know from Sean that he was only bluffing all the while, any normal human with a base amount of curiosity would ask, “but how did you know all those details about my private life with Sean?”. But once again, the script blocks Anna and the other characters to question how a young child could know so many personal details about a person and her dead husband. In real life, this question alone would have driven everyone crazy.
That Bathroom Scene!
Joseph is at the bathroom door and close enough to hear Anna talking with young Sean inside. He could have heard something extremely shady was going on inside. He knows this and walks away. After this, Joseph has no questions for Anna? Wouldn’t he want to know why on earth Anna was taking a bath with a 10-year-old kid? But he never brings it up! The characters in this film are, at times, crazier than these plot holes.
Suspension Of Disbelief?
Does Birth expect the audience to watch this film with the assumption that in the film’s universe, little kids showing up and claiming to be a reincarnation of a dead family member all the time? In a Mission Impossible movie, we are expected to believe that physics works differently for Tom’s action sequences. Birth is apparently placed in a world where logic is absent, much like the Newtonian Laws in action movies? If you really wanna go nuts, watch The Killing Of A Sacred Deer.
What were your thoughts on the plot and ending of the movie Birth? Drop your comments in the section below.
Barry is a technologist who helps start-ups build successful products. His love for movies and production has led him to write his well-received film explanation and analysis articles to help everyone appreciate the films better. He’s regularly available for a chat conversation on his website and consults on storyboarding from time to time.
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