Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel And Lawrence on DVD (1998 pressing)

• Cat.no: FDVD 044
• Cert: 15
• Running time: 84 minutes
• Year: 1998
• Pressing: 1998
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 25 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: None
• Widescreen: 1.85:1
• 16:9-enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: Yes
• Price: Rental only
• Extras : Full Motion Menus, Scene index, Sub-plots, Theatrical trailer, Featurette, Feature Clips and Biographies.

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Director:

Nick Hamm

Producer:

Grainne Marmion

Screenplay:

Peter Morgan

Music:

Ed Shearmur

Cast:

Martha: Monica Potter (Con Air, Patch Adams)
Frank: Rufus Sewell (Amy Foster, Carrington, Cold Comfort Farm, Dark City, Dirty Weekend, Hamlet (1997), TV: “Middlemarch”, “The Woodlanders”)
Daniel: Tom Hollander
Laurence: Joseph Fiennes (The Vacillations Of Poppy Carew)
Pedersen: Ray Winstone (Face, Nil By Mouth)
Male Information Official: Steven O’Donnell (Far And Away, TV: “Bottom”)

Martha Meet Frank, Daniel And Lawrence is the first rental-only DVD title to be released in the UK and comes courtesy of Film Four International, via VCI’s label, and is to be the first in a long line of day-and-date rental DVD and VHS simultaneous releases.

With her last $99, American Martha (Monica Potter) buys a one-way plane ticket to London to start a new life. One after another she bumps into three men, Frank (Rufus Sewell), Daniel (Tom Hollander) and Laurence (Joseph Fiennes, brother of Schindler’s List star Ralph) who are all long-time best friends but when a this woman comes between them it’ll be a fight to the end to see who gets to win her heart. Well, I say they’re all long-time best friends, but Frank never quite sees things eye-to-eye with Daniel at which point Laurence has to act as the go-between.

The film is told in flashback, through the eyes of Laurence, as he discusses the situation with his neighbour-cum-psychiatrist Pedersen (Ray Winstone, in a rather under-used role). There is also a brief cameo from Steven O’Donnell, who had a regular part in Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson’s TV series, Bottom, as Spudgun, best friend to Christopher Ryan’s Hedgehog.

The picture quality is mostly excellent on this disc with a good average bitrate of 5.45 Mb/s. However, in a few scenes the bitrate drops below 4Mb/s and the picture suffers with noticeable artifacts, which is a shame given how good the disc looks the rest of the time. The film is also 16:9-enhanced for widescreen televisions (although the trailer isn’t and has a ratio of approx. 15:9). The good news is that the film itself is presented in its original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1.

The sound is also very good, but it won’t give your speakers a workout. Aside from the ambience and musical interludes from composer Ed Shearmur, there are a number of songs on the soundtrack, namely: Texas (Halo), Roni Size (Brown Paper Bag), Booth And The Bad Angel – aka Tim Booth from James and Twin Peaks’ producer Angelo Badalamenti – (Fall In Love With Me), Hurricane #1 (Step Into My World), Echo And The Bunnymen (Fools Like Us), Morcheeba (Tape Loop) and Dusty Springfield (I Only Want To Be With You).

In addition there is the original theatrical trailer, a four-minute featurette including interviews from the cast, a selection of clips from the film, plus text biographies of the main cast and crew members.

Sub-Plots : Click on this brings up a menu with four headings :

To those who know the film, you’ll have an idea of what to expect, but to those who don’t I won’t spoil what’s in store. However, to summarise, each heading contains a number of small clips strung together which show how that aspect of the film develops. It’s worth noting that you should only view these after seeing the whole film so as not to spoil any surprises.

Languages/Subtitles : There’s just the one language on this disc – English – and there are no subtitles, nor is there a commentary track. Menu : On booting up the DVD you can’t skip past the VCI and Film Four logos and copyright info. I played this disc on a Creative Encore Dxr2 DVD-ROM player and also found I could not record bookmarks, to make it easy to find my place when I need to stop the film, or go forward and back through the chapters using the onscreen remote control and the Explore and Time functions would not operate.

Clicking on the menu options can be a little hap-hazard as previously mentioned. However, parts of the onscreen menu of animated in a subtle fashion.

Overall, while anyone buying or renting this film will be contributing to the British Film Industry, it comes off as slow and plodding with little or no spark or chemistry between Monica Potter and any of her potential suitors. You want to like it more, or hope that one of the three relationships will work out better than the other two but as the film goes on, you just don’t care.

Also, there’s not a great deal in the way of extras. One of its saving graces is that Film Four have used the interesting “Sub Plots” feature, but aside from a trailer and a four-minute featurette there’s not much else. Certainly no subtitles in any language (not even English) or alternative language soundtracks.

One might argue that since this version is intended for the rental DVD market only that a lack of extras isn’t a major problem. It’s curious that Film Four are investing in the rental-only DVD market while the DVD market as a whole is still establishing itself, not to mention that some video stores are renting out DVDs originally intended for the retail market alone. However, it’ll be interesting to see what is released for the retail market six months down the line, as well as the next Film Four releases.

FILM                    : * PICTURE QUALITY         : **** SOUND QUALITY           : *** EXTRAS                  : *** ——————————- OVERALL                 : **½ Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.