Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Behind every great love is a great story. Two teenagers from opposite sides of the tracks fall in love during one summer together, but are tragically forced apart. When they reunite 7 years later, their passionate romance is rekindled, forcing one of them to choose between true love and class order.

Great love stories always pull on the heartstrings but this one would make a stonewall cry. The story of a couple falling in love and having life throw them in different directions is told by an old man to an old woman with dementia. But soon you realize this story is a bit more personal than something to pass the time. Love stories don’t get much better, but you better bring your Kleenex.

The video presentation started out pretty disappointing. Early on in the film the imagery is very soft and reminded me more of an above average DVD presentation than a good Blu-ray. Fine detail suffered, the image had a processed look and overall the picture just looked really flat. Later the image brightens up a bit and looks a bit better with average depth and detail. Fine detail is still obscured though and the image has a hard look to it that just doesn’t look very natural. If you already own the DVD I don’t see a lot of reason to upgrade aside from the lack of compression artifacts.

The soundtrack is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 but is very front heavy and lacks spatial design. The score broadens the soundstage some but even it sounds a bit harsh at times. Dialogue sounds good and has a nice natural tone to it but the rest of the mix doesn’t lend much to the experience. Dynamic range is average overall and I just never felt myself pulled in much by the sound design.

This limited edition is a great gift set for fans of the film. The packaging is excellent and inside you’ll find some nice trinkets that are influenced by the film including a scrapbook of sorts for storing your own memories and stickers to use in it that also has the timeline of the film as well. There is also some stationary and envelopes for writing letters and two themed bookmarks. The disc includes an assortment of deleted scenes, feature commentaries from the director and original author and production features including behind the scenes footage and interviews. Overall a very nice package for fans of the film.

This is a great film and Warner has done a great job with the packaging but the presentation definitely left me wanting. I’d be hard pressed to recommend this one if you already own the DVD or you’re not a diehard fan of the film.