Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel And Lawrence on DVD (1999 pressing)

Dom Robinson reviews Martha Meet Frank, Daniel And Lawrence Distributed by

Cat.no: VCD 0011
Cert: 15
Running time: 84 minutes
Year: 1998
Pressing: 1999
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: £19.99
Extras : Full Motion Menus, Scene index, Sub-plots, Theatrical trailer, Featurette, Feature Clips and Biographies.

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Martha Meet Frank, Daniel And Lawrence made DVD history by becoming the first rental-only title to be released in the UK under the Film Four International label and was to be the first in a long line of day-and-date rental DVD and VHS simultaneous releases. Since that release it’s still the only rental DVD released to date, quite possibly because retail DVDs are becoming increasingly popular in video-rental establishments.

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).

Extras : Chapters, Trailer, etc. : There are 25 chapters spread throughout the film which is good enough for an 84 minute film. However, the scene index selection doesn’t make choosing a scene easy, as they’re not numbered and although they come in batches of five, as you move to the next batch the film starts at the top-most one (ie. chapters 1, 6, 11, 16 and 21) and I had to keep selecting the ‘Menu’ option again which brought me back to the scene index menu (!).

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 :

1. Martha – Meet Daniel, Frank And Laurence

2. Laurence And Pedersen

3. Martha And Laurence

4. Frank And Daniel

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, if you thought you can’t skip past the VCI and Film Four logos and copyright info, then think again. I pressed STOP on my DVD-ROM player, then selected “Title Menu” and it bypassed the whole lot which normally seems to go on for ages. Another feature I’ve found on this version which wasn’t present on the rental DVD was the ability to record bookmarks but this problem now seems to have disappeared.

Clicking on the menu options can be a little hap-hazard as previously mentioned. However, parts of the onscreen menu are 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 VCI 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. Aside from that, anyone who’s curious can take note that in terms of content, this release is identical to the rental DVD, save for the fact that the bookmark bug has been ironed out.

Given the aforementioned state of regular DVDs being available to rent, is the rental-only market still born? It may seem that way for now as another recent Film Four release, Velvet Goldmine, was released at the same time to buy as the retail and rental fullscreen video.

FILM: * PICTURE QUALITY: **** SOUND QUALITY: *** EXTRAS: ** ——————————- OVERALL: **½ Review copyright &copy Dominic Robinson, 1999.

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Dom Robinson

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.

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