BIRTH BY PETER KEOUGH

Reincarnation would seem a natural theme for the movies, what with the sequels and remakes and generic reinventions. Actors take on a role, it ends, and they take on another. Yet except for the occasional The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, transmigration is hardly high-concept. This film from Jonathan Glazer, whose Sexy Beast established him as a director of wit and audacity, probably won’t change that, though it casts a creepy if ultimately unconvincing spell of its own.

Sean (Michael Desautels) jogs jauntily through Central Park, enters a tunnel, and drops dead. Ten years later, his widow, Anna (Nicole Kidman), has succumbed to the blandishments of Joseph (Danny Huston) and agreed to remarry. But a 10-year-old boy (Cameron Bright) shows up at her door and claims to be Sean. He makes a convincing case, too, and until the film gets bogged down in plot mechanics and implausibility, it roughs up some tender preconceptions about true love, mortality, and the innocence of children. Glazer evokes but does not capitalize on an atmosphere reminiscent of Rosemary’s Baby with the film’s gloomy Manhattan manses and Nicole Kidman’s Mia Farrow haircut and the Ramses-like visage of the ancient Lauren Bacall as Anna’s mother. As for the short do, it softens Kidman, making her more appealing than she’s been in years, even when she’s sharing a bath with a 10-year-old. At the Showcase (Warwick and Seekonk Route 6). (100 minutes)