Well don’t expect too much here, as I am
not a big fan of Richard Gere. Yes it’s true I’m female and I don’t swoon
every time someone mentions his name. In fact he doesn’t do much for me at all. Even
as an actor I think he has some limited capabilities. Mr Jones played by Richard Gere
is first introduced as a happy kind of guy getting a job on a construction site by being a
little pushy and witty. We soon realise that something is wrong when he attempts to fly
from the top of the building. His new found friend Howard (Delroy Lindo) risks his life to
save him and he is shipped off to an institution where he is diagnosed as a manic
depressant. Dr. Elizabeth Bowen (Lina Olin) enters stage right as the beautiful
psychiatrist who seems to have a little more of a connection with this strange patient.
This situation is repeated several times under different and stranger circumstances
each time and eventually there begins to be a bond between Mr Jones and Dr. Bowen.
Without spoiling the rest of the film you can expect to see some romance building and
some restraint on one side of the fence as well.
You will also be surprised with the difference in moods from a manic depressant point
of view. On one side there is the ecstatically happy and life loving and then there is the
terminally depressed feeling as well.
So How Does This Transfer Hold Up?
VIDEO
This is again an exceptional transfer from Columbia. The transfer is presented at a ratio
of 1.85:1 and is Anamorphic Widescreen. The images are consistently sharp
and clear with only some very minor occurrences of small grain.
Colours were sharp and fresh where required and then dark and dismal where required.
This shows some excellent photographic skills involved. There was however no lack of
shadow detail due to images being a little darker for emotional effect.
There is absolutely no ailiasing to be found which is quite extraordinary really. How
is it this disk can be presented on a single layer and still have this sort of quality?
Why isn’t this a standard to be matched?
I was also disappointed that the subtitles default to on when starting the film.
As a trained photographer I am very impressed with some of the photographic work which
has gone into this film. There is a little wobbling towards the very end of the film but
not really so much of a transfer problem. I also had some problems with the end credits
freezing and jumping a bit. Probably a player fault though. (Which is causing me some
grief)
AUDIO
Ok not quite so good here. Yep it’s only Dolby Digital 2.0 but still
has some noticeable problems. The surround channel was used quite a bit given the nature
of the film and certainly gave some great ambience to the film. Bass was used lightly but
to great effect. I did have a lot of volume problems though. The dialogue seemed to be
recorded at different levels and I had to constantly turn the volume up to understand the
dialogue. Which is a major pain in the neck. I could not find any sync problems and was
impressed with the musical score from Maurice Jarre.
EXTRAS
Yep; lets just not even bother with this category. This has to be the worst line up of
extras I have seen in a long long time.
Sorry but I refuse to give the menu as an extra. This is a standard feature of any dvd.
The picture disc is quite nice and then there are only the cast and crew filmographies.
Very disappointing line up of extras for a recent film. Not even a trailer.
In all this wasn’t what I expected. Granted yes the video transfer is fantastic
but then it needs to be to cover the mediocre acting and story line. Maybe I’m being
too critical but this wasn’t a film that could hold my attention. In fact it took
several goes for me to stay awake for the entire film. Nice film, very nice transfer, but
it’s certainly one for the die-hard Richard Gere fans.
