Glazer responded, "People are a bit polarised by it, which is healthy". The critics's consensus for Birth at review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reads: "A well-mounted production is undermined by a muddled, absurd storyline of questionable taste." On the website, 39% of 147 reviews are classified as "fresh" (positive), and the average rating is 5.10/10. According to Metacritic, which compiled 38 reviews and calculated a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, the film received "mixed or average reviews". In his review for Newsweek, David Ansen wrote, "the script is hooey. Birth is ridiculous, and oddly unforgettable". Michael O'Sullivan, in his review for The Washington Post, wrote, "What I'm not so fond of is the cop-out ultimately taken by the filmmakers, who can't seem to follow through on their promisingly metaphysical premise (let alone the theme of obsessive love), electing instead to eliminate all ambiguity". In his review for the New York Daily News, Jack Mathews called the film, "corny, plodding, implausible and – on occasion – seriously creepy". However, Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and compared it to Rosemary's Baby saying, "Birth is less sensational and more ominous, and also more intriguing because instead of going for quick thrills, it explores what might really happen if a 10-year-old turned up and said what Sean says". In his review for The New York Times, A.O. Scott praised Nicole Kidman's performance: "Without Ms. Kidman's brilliantly nuanced performance, Birth might feel arch, chilly and a little sadistic, but she gives herself so completely to the role that the film becomes both spellbinding and heartbreaking, a delicate chamber piece with the large, troubled heart of an opera." Birth was placed at 96 on Slant Magazine's best films of the 2000s. Writing in The Guardian in August 2010, film critic David Thomson included the film in his list of '10 lost works of genius'. Controversy The film generated controversy due to a scene wherein Kidman shares a bath with Bright, both apparently naked. In fact, Bright was never naked and the two 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 wore special clothes that were not visible to the camera. Glazer insists that the scene is not erotic or exploitative. "I can imagine that, before people see it, they might think it