6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Remake of French thriller, Papillon Noir by Herve Korian. Banderas plays Paul, a down-on-his-luck screenwriter who picks up a drifter (Rhys Meyers) and offers him a place to stay. However, when the deranged stranger takes Paul hostage and forces him to write, their unhinged relationship brings buried secrets to light.
Starring: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Piper Perabo, Antonio Banderas, Abel Ferrara, Vincent RiottaThriller | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
The first shot of Black Butterfly is a close-up of someone shackled to a chair, with his hands cuffed behind him. When it is later revealed that this person is a screenwriter named Paul Lopez (Antonio Banderas) and that he’s being held hostage in his remote cabin by an apparently crazed fan named Jack (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), it’s all but impossible not to think about Misery , though Black Butterfly lacks Misery’s wacko Annie Wilkes or, perhaps more saliently, its narrative clarity. Black Butterfly hinges on not one but two “twists”, one of which is so ridiculously improbable that even those who have gone with the film’s already incredible storyline may be at major eye rolling territory by the time it’s trotted out in the film’s closing moments. This is one of those films where pretty much everything you’re witnessing is not what it appears to be, and so some may feel cheated by two late reveals that upend the preceding plot, without any genuine feeling of catharsis. After that brief view of Paul shackled to a chair, and then another brief view of Paul trying to get something written (in what is kind of understood as a timeline prior to the shackling scene), the film segues to a family enjoying a picnic at a park, a celebration which quickly turns tragic when the wife and mother mysteriously disappears on her way back to the car (in just one of the unexplained elisions in the film, since there are tons of people around, including by the car, and the later “revelation” of who the culprit is never provides any clarifying information as to how the abduction took place). That then segues back to Paul, who is an alcoholic recluse trying to unload his acreage with the help of realtor Laura Johnson (Piper Perabo).
Black Butterfly is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Once again technical data on the shoot is hard to come by online, though the making of featurette included on the Blu-ray clearly shows Arri cameras. This is another generally nice looking presentation, one that is occasionally graded toward cool blues, but which also offers a naturalistic looking palette in brightly lit outdoor scenes, where blue skies and verdant fields offer a nice range of tones and great detail levels, even in some wide shots. As with many digitally captured features, there's some attendant murk in the many dimly lit interior scenes (including a few at night which look like they were shot with little to no additional lighting). The film regularly exploits close-ups, some of which can occasionally look slightly out of focus (see screenshot 14), but which generally offer commendable levels of fine detail.
Black Butterfly features a workmanlike DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that doesn't offer a lot of "wow" factor, but which still provides good surround activity in terms of naturalistic placement of ambient environmental sounds, or even brief bursts of low end activity when gunshots are fired. The bulk of the film is comprised of intimate dialogue scenes, most of which are anchored front and center. Fidelity is fine and prioritization well handled throughout this problem free track.
Black Butterfly seems to be about one thing while hinting that it's really about something else, both of which go up in flames in a late reveal that upends everything that's gone before and may provoke some less inhibited viewers to throw their remotes at their screens. The film boasts excellent performances and some decent anxiety filled sequences, but this is one film which could have done significantly better without supposedly mind blowing "twists". Technical merits are generally strong for those considering a purchase.
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