Fails the Bechdel test
Birthday Girl
2002. Directed by Jez Butterworth, written by Tom Butterworth and Jez Butterworth.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
5 women characters. 4 of them speak. -
No
2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.
Second opinion
Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.
The film
Internet love connections and mail-order brides rarely ever work out, and John should have known. Having never been lucky in the game of love and tired of waiting for the perfect woman to come along, John decides to take his chances and orders a mail-order bride from Russia online. At first, things seem perfect: his new bride Nadia is a gorgeous woman, and although she may not speak much English, her skills in the bedroom more than make up for any communication problems. When Nadia's 'cousins' unexpectedly arrive to celebrate her birthday, John is drawn into their web of corruption and crime.
- Released
- 01 Feb 2002
- Genres
- Comedy, Crime, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6 / 10
- Metascore
- 51 / 100
- Awards
- 1 win total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- John 245 lines, man
- Nadia 167 lines, woman
- Yuri 80 lines, man
- Alexei 32 lines, man
- Branch Manager 19 lines, man
- Clare 6 lines, woman
- Moseley 5 lines
- Voice Over 5 lines
- Waitress 5 lines, woman
- Trainer 4 lines
Full cast, 22 people
- Nicole Kidman as Nadia / Sophia
- Ben Chaplin as John
- Vincent Cassel as Alexei
- Mathieu Kassovitz as Yuri
- Kate Lynn Evans as Clare
- Stephen Mangan as Bank Manager
- Alexander Armstrong as Robert Mosley
- Sally Phillips as Karen
- Jo McInnes as Waitress
- Ben Miller as Concierge
- Jonathan Aris as D.I. O'Fetiger
- Katya Barton-Chapple as Young Sophia
- Mark Gatiss as Porter
- Reece Shearsmith as Porter
- Alan Stocks as Passport Official
- Steve Pemberton as Duty sergeant
- Rebecca Norton as Bank Colleague
- Raj Ghatak as Bank Colleague
- Jack Pierce as Bank Colleague
- David Mark as Bank Colleague
- J.J. Toba as Policeman
- David Jobling as Airport (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 5% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 180
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 0 | 10 |
| 5 to 8 | 1 | 2 |
| 9 to 12 | 1 | 6 |
| 13 to 16 | 10 | 15 |
| 17 to 20 | 0 | 6 |
| 21 to 24 | 0 | 1 |
| 25 to 28 | 0 | 5 |
| 29 to 32 | 0 | 2 |
| 33 to 36 | 0 | 0 |
| 37 to 40 | 0 | 0 |
| 41 to 44 | 0 | 2 |
| 45 to 48 | 0 | 0 |
| 49 to 52 | 2 | 5 |
| 53 to 56 | 0 | 6 |
| 57 to 60 | 0 | 2 |
| 61 to 64 | 0 | 0 |
| 65 to 68 | 0 | 1 |
| 69 to 72 | 6 | 9 |
| 73 to 76 | 1 | 62 |
| 77 to 80 | 0 | 20 |
| 81 to 84 | 0 | 12 |
| 85 to 88 | 3 | 8 |
| 89 to 92 | 0 | 29 |
| 93 to 96 | 0 | 0 |
| 97 to 100 | 3 | 15 |
| 101 to 104 | 0 | 0 |
| 105 to 108 | 0 | 0 |
| 109 to 112 | 0 | 0 |
| 113 to 116 | 19 | 33 |
| 117 to 120 | 0 | 0 |
| 121 to 124 | 23 | 17 |
| 125 to 128 | 5 | 3 |
| 129 to 132 | 5 | 8 |
| 133 to 136 | 2 | 3 |
| 137 to 140 | 35 | 35 |
| 141 to 144 | 30 | 24 |
| 145 to 148 | 6 | 4 |
| 149 to 152 | 0 | 0 |
| 153 to 156 | 0 | 0 |
| 157 to 160 | 0 | 0 |
| 161 to 164 | 0 | 3 |
| 165 to 168 | 7 | 8 |
| 169 to 172 | 19 | 16 |
| 173 to 176 | 0 | 7 |
| 177 to 180 | 4 | 2 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 32 are women's.
182 lines from women, 381 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
5 women and 13 men in the cast. 4 women and 5 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 14 of 591.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 86 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 25% of the words (1,106), men 75% (3,249). Women have 32% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit D: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
0
Two men
15
Exhibit E: behind the camera
3 of the 12 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 28% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Jez Butterworth (man)
- Written by
- Tom Butterworth (man), Jez Butterworth (man)
- Produced by
- Steve Butterworth (man), Diana Phillips (woman), Eric Abraham (man)
- Shot by
- Oliver Stapleton (man)
- Edited by
- Christopher Tellefsen (man)
- Music by
- Stephen Warbeck (man)
- Production design by
- Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski (man)
- Costumes by
- Phoebe De Gaye (woman)
- Cast by
- Jina Jay (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
1 women, 9 men, 38 not listed
-
Production
5 women, 9 men, 23 not listed
-
Art
4 women, 4 men, 27 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 1 men, 32 not listed
-
Camera
1 women, 7 men, 18 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 10 men, 10 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
4 women, 2 men, 12 not listed
-
Directing
3 women, 2 men, 4 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 33 on average. Men: 33 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Sally Phillips 31, Nicole Kidman 34
Men
Ben Chaplin 31, Alexander Armstrong 31, Stephen Mangan 33, Vincent Cassel 34, Mathieu Kassovitz 34, Ben Miller 35
Exhibit G: the money
It made 1.2 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $13 million
- Box office
- $16.2 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 180 scenes and 591 lines of dialogue. How the test works
