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Traveta reviews
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
- Cert: R
- Cat.no: 26065
- Running time: 130 minutes
- Year: 2001
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): 1, NTSC
- Chapters: 17
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English, French
- Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: $29.95
- Extras:None
Director:
- Todd Field
Screenplay:
- Rob Festinger and Todd Field
Cast:
- Frank Fowler: Nick Stahl
Natalie Strout: Marisa Tomei
Ruth Fowler: Sissy Spacek
Matt Fowler: Tom Wilkinson
Richard Strout: William Matpother
Have you ever found yourself watching a movie nominated for Best Pictureand not seeing what all the hype is about?There’s only two movies thatwere nominated for Best Picture that were truly great:Lord of the Ringsand the originalStar Wars.LOTR went up against this one: In the Bedroom last year and both lostto A Beautiful Mind. So what made theacademy think of nominating this movie? Well, if the acting wasn’t sogood then it might have been swept under the rug and quicklyforgotten. But for a few scenes, and I know this sounds cheesy, I forgotI was watching actors. Marisa Tomei, Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, andeven newcomer Nick Stahl (who will play an older John Connor inTerminator 3) deliver stellar performances. Without this, the movie wouldhave no ground against all the others.
In the Bedroom tells the story of college boy named Frank Fowler. Hebecomes romantically entangled with single mom, Natalie (Marisa Tomei)who happens to be in her early thirties. Of course, his parents (SissySpacek and Tom Wilkinson) disapprove of the relationship but Frankassures them that it isn’t serious. But Natalie isn’t all the waydivorced yet as her husband Richard Strout keeps harrassing her abouttheir kids and how she’s dating a college boy. There. That’s all I cantell you. At exactly 40 minutes into the movie the plot morphs when atwist, that I did not see coming, occurred. Watch it and I guarantee youwon’t see it. I don’t want to spoil any more.
Watching this movie made me feel like I was watching a soap opera. Imean, after a while, it got to be the same thing over and over. But itall adds up into the end which makes up 20 minutes and the movie has todeal with these “boring parts” anyway. But I’m starting to expect lesswhen I watch an Oscar nominated movie any more. Not terrible but it’ssaved by the great acting and realistic setting.
Into the disc. Classic Buena Vista. I’ve only seen a few DVDs from theirstudios (Miramax, Touchstone, and Dimension, Disney excluded) that hadreally good transfers. This one is alright but it just looks too light.Filters were used in the film to give it a sort of old-time feel and it’spulled off well but it’s just not very exciting.Colors are sharp but solids are too soft in a few scenes. Consideringthe complete lack of extras on the disc this could have been great.
The sound doesn’t fare too well either. Dialogue is very low at times.There’s no music in the film so this shouldn’t have been a problem. It’snot inaudible but it just seems too low.
No extras are included. The only thing besides the movie are someworthless trailers for other films. Director Todd Field doesn’t care forextras so there you go. I think it’s great when directors are insupervision of the DVD release because it usually means great transfersand loads of extras, not to mention a commentary which is absent aswell.Royal Tenenbaums,Star Wars Episode I,among others all had theirDVDs supervised by their creators and they turned out great. Whathappend here? This almost ticks me off as much as David Lynch’s no-chapter-stopfeature on his DVDs. He claims movies aren’t books so chapters aren’t necessary.What if you have to stop watching it, you’re going to have to frame advancethroughout the whole thing. Very uninformed.
Overall, In the Bedroom is another decent flick from Buena Vista (likeImpostor) coupled with a poor DVD. I recommend it for the acting butsince the price tag is a steep $29.95, rent it first.
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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.