A man looking for love gets more than he bargained for when he chooses his prospective wife on the internet in this dark comedy. The manager of a bank in a small British community (
Ben Chaplin) decides that he's in need of long-term companionship, and through an on-line marriage broker called From Russia With Love, he obtains a "mail order" bride (
Nicole Kidman). While he's more than pleased that his new fiancée is so beautiful, she turns out to have a dangerous and mysterious side that he wasn't counting on, and things become quite complicated when two of her cousins (
Vincent Cassel and
Mathieu Kassovitz) arrive from Russia and move into his tiny house in St. Albans. Though set in England, Birthday Girl was actually shot in Australia, which allowed leading lady
Nicole Kidman to stay in touch with her then- husband,
Tom Cruise, who was shooting Mission: Impossible II in Australia at the same time. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide