Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

A Month in the Country Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 7, 2015

There’s an ineluctable rhythm to English village life, one that may tend to elude the typically hurried and harried American traveler. The quieter pace and at least putatively more genteel sensibilities that inform many English rural communities is front and center in A Month in the Country, an understated drama which may recall certain Merchant-Ivory collaborations for some viewers, and a film which provided early starring roles for Colin Firth, Kenneth Branagh and Natasha Richardson.

In the wake of World War I, two emotionally scarred vets become friends in the picturesque village of Oxgodby, Yorkshire. Tom Birkin (Colin Firth) is in town to restore a mural at the village’s ancient church, and James Moon (Kenneth Branagh) is an archeologist who is there working on some somewhat associated historical research. Both of these men are dealing with the emotional traumas wrought by their wartime experiences, and each matriculates into village life in various ways, not always comfortably. Birkin ends up developing romantic feelings for the wife (Natasha Richardson) of the local vicar, but the film is less about any romantic entanglements than it is about the slow unfolding of various psychological issues of the two main male characters, and how village life both attends and obstructs their resolution. Slow and not especially cathartic in the long run, A Month in the Country is still a very evocative character piece which has an almost palpable feel for time and place.

A Month in the Country Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A Month in the Country is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. As is discussed in the commentary included on this Blu-ray, for rather odd reasons A Month in the Country, despite being an at least relatively recent film, was considered "lost" for some time, and original elements are still evidently nowhere to be found. While secondary elements, reportedly two 35mm prints, were located, this transfer has an overly processed look that suggests that whatever elements were used were either inherently problematic or presented problems which were then attempted to be ameliorated with digital tools. The best thing about this transfer is its palette, which still pops with some immediacy, especially in terms of the verdant greens of the lush English countryside. Grain is in evidence, but it's rather odd looking, and there seem to be signs of digital filtering, as fine detail is often noticeably lacking, to the point that pores in relative close-ups can't be discerned. Things aren't "waxy" in a traditional way, but they're awfully smooth looking, to the point that this almost looks like video instead of film some of the time. The film utilizes a lot of filtered and/or soft focus shots, approaches which in and of themselves tend to mitigate detail and fine detail. Obviously there's only so far that efforts can take problematic source elements, but whatever combination of problematic source elements and ameliorative steps taken to confront them has resulted in a fairly lackluster presentation here.

A Month in the Country Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While not overly problematic in the same way the video presentation is, A Month in the Country's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix is a bit anemic in terms of amplitude, and there are occasional very slight prioritization issues which tend to bury some of the dialogue, however temporarily. Fidelity is generally very good, and dynamic range at least reasonably wide.

A Month in the Country Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Original Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:05)


• Isolated Music and Effects Track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.


• Audio Commentary features Twilight Time's Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman.

A Month in the Country Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Beautiful performances and some thoughtful dialogue help to enliven this frankly fairly slow film. Those who don't mind mood dominating plot mechanics may get more out of A Month in the Country than most. The film certainly offers wonderful early starring turns for its redolent cast. Video quality has some issues, and so caution is advised, though as an overall package, A Month in the Country comes Recommended.