Continuity mistake: In the bedroom scene where Joseph discusses the boy's letter with Anna, we see Anna putting on her earrings, interestingly enough, her earrings change in each shot. First we see her putting on her 'left' earring while she is still standing by the bureau, then she sits down on the bed and puts on her 'left' earring again, then she stands up - and in the next shot we see her at the buffet where she is suddenly already wearing her 'right' earring, but miraculously missing her 'left' earring. (00:22:00 - 00:23:25)
Birth (2004)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Jonathan Glazer
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Danny Huston, Lauren Bacall, Cameron Bright
The boy manages to slowly convince her of this by telling her excrutiatingly intimate details of the life she shared with her husband Sean, including details of their sexual history. In the end, it is revealed that the boy discovered a box of letters buried by her husband's mistress. These letters are the source of all of his "inside information". The letters were written by Anna to her husband, which he had given unopened to his mistress to prove his love for her. His mistress held on to the letters until she decided she would ruin Anna's wedding plans by showing her the letters and stating her husband's intent to leave her before his death. The young Sean had discovered the letters and believed himself to be her husband because of his love for her. After he discovers the infidelity, he comes to the realization that he can not be her husband because he feels he would never have been unfaithful to someone he loves so much.
More mistakes in Birth
Young Sean: I'm not Sean... because I love you.
Anna: You make no sense.
Trivia: During the controversial bathtub scene, Cameron Bright was never naked and he and Nicole Kidman were never even in the same room during the filming of the bath scene, apart from one camera shot, and when this shot happened both actors wore special clothes that were not visible to the camera.
More questions & answers from Birth
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Answer: I would say that he was "in love" with her before reading the letters. Once he read them, he kinda became convinced that he was the reincarnated spirit of her husband. He clearly is not, since the original Sean was not really in love with her.
I think it was a grey area between the two...I think in life, we are exposed to and vulnerable to, sin. In our rebirth, sin is erased. We don't remember it. I think we remember love. I interpreted the boy as being the reincarnation of Anna's Sean, but only remembering the love he originally had for her, before it was tainted with lust and temptation.