20-ish years ago I saw this movie - at home, on VHS - and in 2020 I have enough of a positive recollection to give it another viewing. As I sit through the opening credits and see Vincent Cassels and Matthieu Kassovitz show up - who I didn't remember at all, I realise I have only one actual memory of the movie as a whole ... one line from Ben Chaplin, who kind of disappeared after this movie ... but of course they're both fantastic in their own right so I stick with it. The one line comes and goes, and it's about as good as I remember it - delivered with a tight, very English sense of self-righteousness and resolve, and very dry comic timing - and then the rest of the film unfolds without too many surprises, to a more or less satisfactory conclusion.
It's probably never going to be anybody's favourite movie, but it's clever enough and I guarantee I'll still remember that one line in another decade or so, so props to Ben Chaplin for that, wherever he may be these days
Review of Birthday Girl
