The best of Nicole Kidman: Birth

1. Birth
2. To Die For
3. Dead Calm
4. Flirting
5. Eyes Wide Shut

Of her Blond-Venus-type roles, I prefer her work in The Golden Compass to the stuff she did with Baz Luhrmann (those two need to be forcible separated). Her scene in front of the car headlights in To Die For is forever burned onto my retina — that movie awoke a lioness. She was the only good thing in Eyes Wide Shut. But my favorite has to be Birth, a movie so rich and strange I still can't quite believe it ever got made. Check out the long close-up of her face in the opera as she finally comes to believe the strange little boy stood outside her doorstep. It's like David Lynch, with real emotions.