The Birthday Party Review: Big Family Problems

Miguel Ángel Jiménez’s The Birthday Party is an intriguing drama with good performances that suffers from pacing problems and a flat ending.

The Birthday Party could have been a more emotional and impactful experience, and although it isn’t a terrible movie, it’s certainly not as compelling as Willem Dafoe’s central performance.

The Birthday Party takes place in the seventies and is set on Greek (?) millionaire businessman Marcos Timoleon (Dafoe)’s private island. He has organised a party for his daughter Sofia (Vic Carmen Sonne, of The Girl with the Needle)’s 25th birthday, and has invited all sorts of important people. Amongst them is journalist Ian Forster (Joe Cole, of Gangs of London), who has been hired to write a biography of Marcos, but is also hiding a secret. Said secret is something Marcos needs to take care of, but there are a couple of problems. One, Ian doesn’t seem to be the kind of person who can be bought, and two, it involves Sofia, who is much smarter than he initially thought.

At times, The Birthday Party feels like an extended version of The Godfather’s initial scene – only, instead of Vito Corleone the mafia leader, we have Marcos the ruthless businessman, and instead of a wedding party, we have, appropriately, a birthday one. In fact, Ian does mention that his client’s biography resembles Coppola’s classic, but Marcos prefers to compare his life to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. In any case, the movie’s influences are clear, although the end product does have a more sensual and at times exploitative flavour.

After all, The Birthday Party includes a couple of rather gratuitous sex scenes, a pool party that turns into some sort of orgy, and uncomfortable familial conflicts that reminded me of the kind of stuff one usually finds in soap operas. At times, the film seems to include all these elements just for the sake of being shocking, which isn’t necessarily bad, but in this case detracts from the believability of the story. I assume the idea was to portray these millionaires and their friends as people who abuse power and can do anything they want, but the only character to be symbolising this credibly is Marcos.

Of course, it does help that the character is portrayed by the great Willem Dafoe. The experienced star manages to turn this ruthless, misogynistic and smart businessman into a rather compelling protagonist. He is the kind of man who seems to be constantly planning stuff and who likes being in control. In this case, he is obsessed with controlling his daughter due to the trauma of having been abandoned by his parents as a child, and also because of the early death of his son, Daniel, years before. He is scary without going over the top; Dafoe understands that a more understated performance helps convert Marcos into both a tragic and unpleasant figure.

Vic Carmen Sonne also gives a good performance as Sofia, portraying her as a young woman who has been away from home for good reason and who, despite having a friend in her father’s maid (Elsa Lekkakou), never really manages to feel comfortable on the island. Joel Cole turns Ian into an incisive yet indecisive man, and Emma Suárez shines as Olivia, Marcos’s soon-to-be ex-wife. Unfortunately, both Suárez and Cole, and even Lekkakou, are wasted in roles that could’ve (and should’ve) been meatier; in particular, the maid’s subplot feels undercooked, despite being somewhat central to the whole experience.

Additionally, The Birthday Party has trouble deciding on a true protagonist. On the one hand, we have Dafoe’s fascinating Marcos, who is a man of many facets: that of the charming host, of the merciless businessman and even of the caring father. And on the other hand, we have Sofia, who wants to be closer to her dad, hates her stepmother, and seemingly has to decide between being with someone Marcos doesn’t approve of and someone who would be the perfect heir to the family business. The Birthday Party should’ve focused on one of these two perspectives, but instead, it tries to strike a balance between them and thus ends up feeling unfocused and messy.

Nevertheless, and despite its flaws, The Birthday Party is an interesting movie. Visually, it’s quite gorgeous, making good use of its real locations and impressive sets, as well as a group of colourful extras. And performances are all good, with Dafoe being the clear standout. Plus, the story has a lot to say about control, family issues and power dynamics. It’s a pity, then, that the end result doesn’t really gel, dragging to its inevitable and rather flat conclusion, ending with a song by Dafoe himself during the end credits. The Birthday Party isn’t worth celebrating, but thankfully, it isn’t worth leaving either.

The Birthday Party will be released in U.S. theaters, on digital and on demand on August 14, 2026.