Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

360 Blu-ray Movie Review

Secrets aren't worth the trouble.

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf August 30, 2013

“360” is a story of sexual gamesmanship that takes a familiar multi-character journey around the globe. Director Fernando Meirelles (“The Constant Gardner,” “City of God”) has numerous subplots to juggle and societal urgencies to dissect, leaving “360” a sharply paced picture that’s more about ephemeral highlights than a lasting dramatic sting. A smoothly manufactured, intermittently upsetting look at impulses and desires, the feature boasts an exceptional cast to carry the brief but difficult challenges facing the characters, while Meirelles keeps the film humming along, braiding these strangers into a single display of yearning, albeit a craving that takes the occasional unsavory turn.

An Eastern European woman obsessed with easy money, Mirkha (Lucia Siposova) joins a prostitution ring, dragging along her sister, Anna (Gabriela Marcinkova), for support. Her first client is Michael (Jude Law), a lonely businessman married to Rose (Rachel Weisz), who’s desperate to end her affair with a younger man. Laura (Maria Flor) is a South American excited to leave Europe and return home, striking up a conversation with John (Anthony Hopkins) on a plane ride. Traveling to Phoenix to identify the body of a dead girl who may be his runaway daughter, John is eager for company, planning to dine with Laura once their layover troubles are resolved. When a chance meeting at an airport café with Tyler (Ben Foster) proves to be irresistible, Laura invites the skittish man back to her hotel room, unaware that he’s a convicted sex offender. And an Islamic man (Jamel Debbouze) faces a religious crisis when his feelings for a married co-worker (Dinara Drukarova) become too much to bear, unaware that the woman is dealing with her own relationship troubles.

Loosely adapted from the play “La Ronde” by Arthur Schnitzler, “360” is scripted by Peter Morgan, the acclaimed writer of “The Queen” and “The Last King of Scotland.” Although the temptation is there to drill into the sickness of the characters with a violent display of misery (a.k.a. the Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu approach), Morgan is more fascinated with chance encounters and near misses, keeping the material surprisingly light for such a profound topic. It’s hardly a romantic comedy, but there’s a certain ease with the violations here that keeps the dysfunction approachable. “360” is less about punishment and more about observance, placing the frazzled characters in disorienting situations to see how they react.

It’s a twisted road ahead for the community of “360,” with all of these characters tied together in some fringe manner, with a few directly stepping on one another’s toes as the story unfolds. Meirelles is prepared for the collisions, using split-screen and fluid timing to link the subplots together, playing up themes of possibility and risk, finding these lonely souls greeting romantic and sexual chance back into their lives, despite most being unprepared for such a radical change to their routine. It’s an efficiently directed picture, opening starkly with Mirkha’s recruitment photo shoot, soon taking off on a series of disruptions and disappointments, each plot thread containing surprises that invite further study. Some, including Tyler’s itchy encounter with Laura, are explicitly suspenseful, watching the convicted rapist deal with a consensual act of seduction, unable to process such ease of access on his way to rehabilitation. John’s connection to the coupling is equally intense, as the skittish father figure once again confronts the sudden loss of a young woman in his life, triggering a crippling sense of déjà vu.

360 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (2.35:1 aspect ratio) presentation carries a mix of styles and moods. The Blu-ray successfully manages the changes in tone, weaving through varying levels of grain and lighting schemes, while picking up the limitations of the HD cinematography. Colors are dialed down but expressive, with nightlife displaying a rich view of neon lights and city bustle, while interiors pinpoint hues of costuming. Exteriors also capture changes in weather, finding blue and gray skies setting the vibe. Skintones are accurate, holding their natural characteristics when not intentionally washed out. Shadow detail is satisfactory, sustaining textures during evening sequences, while set design is allowed depth. Detail is equally welcoming, with the shell-shocked expressions of the characters captured in fill, finding facial particulars crisply defined and fabrics open for inspection.

360 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA sound mix carries a musical mood, hearing a multitude of soundtrack selections maintaining the picture's emotional movements. The songs sound lush, pushing out into the surrounds, which are active but not concerned with directional movement, used primarily to generate a jazzy ambiance, not engage the listener. Dialogue exchanges are fresh and direct, clarifying accents crisply and managing the escalation of passion with ease, never swallowing conversations. Scoring is gentle and unobtrusive, preserving its place of support. Low-end is minimal for this reflective picture, showing sporadic activity with atmospherics. Not out for a major display of sonic heft, the "360" listening experience reveals pleasing balance and shape, just not remarkable dimensionality.

360 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• "Coming Full Circle: The Making of '360'" (13:03, SD) is a standard EPK exploration of the production event, only here there's a wide range of cast and crew members contributing interviews to help comprehend creative and professional motivations. It's a positive conversation, mostly celebrating the work of Morgan (who cameos in the feature) and Meirelles, with the participants in awe of the creators. There are platitudes, but they feel genuine in their respect, and the second half of the featurette explores characterizations, with the interviewees describing the interior life of their roles.

• "Behind the Scenes Picture-In-Picture Comparisons" (4:23, SD) break down a handful of scenes, displaying how these moments were achieved with camera and crew. Despite the straightforward intent of the featurette, this type of filmmaking examination is always welcome, showing the day-to-day life of the production and a few tricks of the trade, seeing the pieces of movie magic come together.

• "AXS TV: A Look at '360'" (4:57, HD) returns to the EPK experience, this time weaving exploratory sound bites into a commercial for the picture, created for basic cable promotion. There's nothing here that isn't covered in the other supplements.

• A Theatrical Trailer (2:02, HD) is included.

360 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

With a jazzy score and keen sense of transitions, "360" only flirts with unrelenting darkness, preferring to lock into a mournful tone of missed opportunities, while a few characters are successfully snapped out of their slumber by their mistakes, strengthening bonds that were once about to break. It's a nomadic narrative in some respects, only seeking violent punctuation in the disappointing finale, with Meirelles more in tune with moderate acts of heartbreak and emotional development. "360" also has the benefit of a superb collection of actors, who use what little portion of the tale they've been allotted to shape searing portraits of damage, guilt, and hope, instilling the picture with a full sense of humanity in a structure that often invites repetitive flashes of artificiality.