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Dom Robinson reviews 
- Cert:
- Cat.no: P 9032 DVD
- Running time: 92 minutes
- Year: 2001
- Pressing: 2003
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 16 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English for the hearing impaired
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £17.99
- Extras: Making of, Trailers, Director’s Commentary
Director:
- Michel Gondry
(Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Human Nature, The Letter, The Science of Sleep, Music videos: Bjork, Massive Attack)
Producer:
- Anthony Bregman, Ted Hope, Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman
Screenplay:
- Charlie Kaufman
Music :
- Graeme Revell
Cast :
- Lila Jute: Patricia Arquette
Puff: Rhys Ifans
Nathan Bronfman: Tim Robbins
Nathan’s Father: Robert Forster
Louise: Rosie Perez
Gabrielle: Miranda Otto
Given how director Michel Gondry was responsible for some of the music videos from Massive Attack and Bjork, in the latter namely, Human Behaviour, Army of Me, Isobel, Hyperballad, Joga and Bachelorette – so, all the really weird ones.
So, just 20 minutes into Human Nature I began to wonder whether any of that excellence would be invested into what was becoming a complete bore-fest told in flashback. I also wanted to know where the jokes were, since this is meant to be a comedy. Sadly, the remaining 72 minutes did nothing to change my opinion. No-one should bother to even rent this film, let alone buy it.
As the film begins, author Lila Jute (Patricia Arquette) has been arrested and will spend the rest of her life in jail, Puff (a very hirstute Rhys Ifans) is up in court and animal experiment Dr Nathan Bronfman (Tim Robbins) is having an even worse time than those two put together, since he’s dead, in heaven, with a bullet hole in his head.
At the age of 12, Lila was diagnosed with a condition that left her being extremely hairy, even to the point of living in the woods at the age of 20 and naked, because she felt she could best associate herself with wildlife. Yes, Patricia Arquette is in the buff, but there’s nothing to see because she’s covered in excess hair like an ape.
Puff is an ape-like man who is brought out of the wild and into civilisation and the film tracks his progress and how it interwines with the lives of Lila, Nathan, Lila’s electrolisyst, Louise (Rosie Perez) and Nathan’s lab partner and bit-on-the-side, Gabrielle (Miranda Otto).
Seems like the better alternative to watching this tripe.
The film is presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen and has no problems, but also has nothing to stand out in it either. The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1, but as a comedy/drama it gets little use and certainly none of note.
The extras are very thin on the ground:
- Human Nature featurette (6 mins): The main stars talk about the film. This serves more as an extended trailer and provides nothing new to think about. Presented in 4:3 with non-anamorphic widescreen film clips.
- Teaser Trailers (7 minutes): Ten of them, if you must.
- Director’s Commentary: Maybe it’s 92 minutes of Michel Gondry apologising for this god-awful excuse for a movie. I didn’t bother to find out.
The film contains 16 chapters, subtitles are available in English only and the main menu is static, but scored with a looped piece of music from the film.
In the scores below, the only thing that saves this disc is a reasonable sound and picture. As for the content within, forget it entirely.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.