Gigi & Nate Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Gigi & Nate Blu-ray Movie Review

Thank heaven for little girl monkeys.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 14, 2022

In some ways 1958's Gigi augured the end of an era, at least insofar as the once storied days of Metro Goldwyn Mayer musicals helmed by Vincente Minnelli went. Both the film and Colette's source novella have actually come in for some "woke" reappraisal in the wake of the #metoo movement, but perhaps thankfully, then, Gigi & Nate is not a follow up to the legendary Lerner and Loewe extravaganza, but instead an almost criminally designed feature obviously constructed to not just tug on heartstrings, but to virtually rip them out of viewers' chests. This is a film with obviously noble intentions but with an absolutely relentless approach that for many viewers will result in at least lumps in the throat and quite possibly epic amounts of waterworks from the eyes, but which for that very reason seems almost diabolically manipulative. Still, for animal lovers or those who like stories involving people overcoming huge adversity, Gigi & Nate will probably fill the bill quite well.

Nate Gibson (Charlie Rowe) is a sweet kid about to embark on his college life, and enjoying his last few days of "freedom" at a vacation spot where he repeatedly dives into a nearby body of water. That turns out to have devastating consequences, though perhaps surprisingly not due to diving into a shallow area and breaking his neck. Instead, he contracts meningitis, which almost kills him and ends up leaving him almost completely paralyzed. His mother Claire (Marcia Gay Harden) is obviously distraught, and becomes more so when she sees Nate's will to live evaporating. She ultimately reaches out to a service animal facility which soon provides Nate with Gigi, an incredibly smart capuchin monkey who has herself been freed from perilous circumstances, as is documented in a quick vignette opening the film.

Everything that happens in this film is completely by the numbers, and yet it still manages to pack a rather sizable emotional wallop. Nate is actually suicidal when Gigi enters his life, and the two bond, while Nate's sisters may not both feel exactly at home with a monkey around. Gigi of course ends up captivating everybody, and perhaps unwisely, Nate starts to feel comfortable out in public with her, when (again predictably) some snooty people with their own agendas decide it's best if capuchins are outlawed as pets. That leads to the completely rote "trial" scene where Nate testifies on Gigi's behalf, so to speak, which then leads to momentary heartbreak followed by the equally heartwarming coda.

One of the things that's actually refreshing about the first part of Gigi & Nate is that it doesn't have a snooty villain lurking around the sidelines, and is instead a kind of devastating look at a life stolen, or at least detoured dramatically. The whole idea of an entire town rising up to boycott what is obviously a service animal also seems far fetched and pushes the story into melodramatic territory that its purported "based on a true story" imprimatur may put the lie to. The film offers really emotionally substantial performances from Harden and Rowe in particular, but there's quite a bit of color, if again predictable color, delivered courtesy of Jim Belushi as Nate's dad and Diane Ladd as his grandmother. There's also a quasi-romantic angle involving Nate which is frankly never really very well developed or followed up on, and which seems to serve mostly as a vehicle for the "outing" of Gigi to the community at large, which doesn't respond with approval.

Gigi & Nate Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Gigi & Nate is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.38:1. The IMDb doesn't disclose anything of value in the technical department, and the closing credits roll lists only Panavision, but that set me off on a snark hunt and the Panavision site seems to suggest this may have been captured with the Millennium DXL2 camera, which has source capture resolutions at up to 8K. That in turn leads me to wonder if this may have benefited from a 4K DI, as detail levels are generally very precise looking throughout this presentation on everything from Gigi's bristly fur to human facial features. The palette is agreeably natural looking for the most part, though some interior scenes have a bit of a yellow cast to them.

Gigi & Nate Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Gigi & Nate features a nicely expressive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that gets quite a bit of energy from the admittedly sappy but still effective score by Paul Leonard-Morgan, which kind of essays a Philip Glass-esque deconstruction of triadic motifs in strings with some nice piano work added. Outdoor material also features well placed ambient environmental sounds, and Gigi's propensity for darting hither and yon also provides good placement of directional effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

Gigi & Nate Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Gigi & Nate Photo Gallery (HD; 3:56)


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:32)

Additionally, a digital copy is included and packaging features a slipcover.

Gigi & Nate Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Gigi & Nate is one of the movies where, if you're watching with someone else, you may well find yourself exclaiming (or in fact claiming), " I'm not crying. You're crying." There's an undeniable amount of emotion in this piece which sees a basically decent family (even if there are some passing dysfunctions) have to deal with tragedy, finding a temporary respite in a service animal and then having it yanked away by a seemingly "woke" sentiment that perhaps commendably mentions animal rights but which still almost blatantly ignores how Gigi's "particular set of skills" are being utilized. That kind of pushes this story over into cartoonish melodrama in the second and third acts, but there are still some fine performances, including Gigi herself (whether real or aided by CGI, which I'm actually kind of curious about). Technical merits are solid and Gigi & Nate comes Recommended.