Blu-ray Movie Reviews

When Kym returns to the Buchman family home for the wedding of her sister Rachel, she brings a long history of personal crisis, family conflict and tragedy along with her. The wedding couple's abundant party of friends and relations have gathered for a joyful weekend of feasting, music and love, but Kym - with her biting one-liners and flair for bombshell drama - is a catalyst for long-simmering tensions in the family dynamic.

This is a big departure from what I’ve come to expect from Jonathan Demme as a director. The film has an almost documentary feel with lots of handheld camera work and close up and personal long takes. The cast is brilliant and despite the fact that Hathaway got an Oscar nod for her role here I actually thought DeWitt did a brilliant job as the bride to be and in many ways stole the show. The film is a bit depressing with some dark humor and moving emotion but does a great job of showcasing the human condition and people’s struggle with addiction.

The film was shot completely with HD cameras and has a very detailed, yet very glossy look to it. Fine detail can be quite good but you can tell this wasn’t shot on film as it does have a slight video look to it. Whites are close to clipped through most of the film but somehow this never proves to be very distracting. Colors have a very natural quality and darker scenes lack the typical excessive noise that we normally see from HD cameras. Overall this was a great looking Blu-ray title.

The soundtrack is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and does a great job with presence, mood and dialogue. Since this was shot like a documentary I was expecting a bit more gorilla style audio but this track is very refined with great tonal balance and spatial presence. Timbre is very natural and dialogue is the key player here. The score is moody and the constant instrument playing that seems to go on in the backgrounds has a very natural quality and fidelity. Surrounds do a great job with atmosphere but never call much attention to themselves.

Extras include a feature commentary with the director and cast along with an interesting cast and crew Q&A that gives a lot of insight into the production and story. Some deleted scenes and a look at the band that is playing CONSTANTLY through the film is also included.

While a slightly depressing film I still loved the character work of this film. Sony has once again done an outstanding job with the presentation and continues to be one of my favorites for consistency in quality. Recommended.