In Darkness Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

In Darkness Blu-ray Movie Review

Sony's deliberately dark and dreary Blu-ray earns high marks.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 18, 2012

These are my Jews.

Sometimes, there's a subject matter so completely terrible that to experience it upon multiple occasions through a medium primarily used as a form of entertainment simply becomes too much of an emotional burden for the collective audience or individual viewer to bear. That's not to say that the core terror and heartbreak of such a story loses any of its power, but there's only so much audiences can do, so much grief that they can feel, until it's easier to turn away than it is to continue watching. In Darkness is another Holocaust picture that aims to tell a terribly dark -- literally and figuratively -- chapter of the Nazi reign of terror, this time in occupied Poland during the Second World War. Its retelling and recreating of the underground self-imposed Jewish captivity is a story worth sharing to be sure; it's harrowing, dangerous, emotionally charged, and all the more so because it really happened, and probably happened in a way that's much worse than what can be depicted in film, worse in terms of the terrible physical conditions in which the in-hiding people lived, and much worse as it relates to their mental and emotional states. Yet the material is so bleak and emotionally draining that audiences might choose to simply slip away, to respect the event but choose to neither see it nor live it. Yet no matter one's emotional reaction, how hard the movie hits, and whatever dramatic highs or shortcomings may exist even in the retelling of a story this strong, audiences cannot deny this movie's technical merits, which are nearly above reproach.

Coming up for air.

Leopold Socha (Robert Wieckiewicz) is a Polish sewer worker who knows the city's underground tunnels better than anyone. He's also a thief, and a good one at that. His unique combination of detailed knowledge of the underground and ability to operate in secrecy makes him there perfect yet unwitting savior of a group of local Jews who escape Nazi cleansing. When occupying German forces commence a slaughter of local Jews, survivors hurriedly make their way to the underground, the same underground Socha knows all-too-well. But he knows that not all can be safely hidden from the world above. He agrees to hide a dozen and demands payment in return, enough to cover supplies for the twelve as well some leftover to line his own pocket. For Socha, it's merely a business decision, albeit a dangerous business decision, but as the occupation continues, the Nazis prove to be nastier and more unforgiving than even he can tolerate, and as he comes to know the Jews in his care, he becomes more concerned for their welfare beyond the extra money he earns for their protection. Suddenly, Socha finds the risk of keeping them alive worth more to himself than the monetary rewards he earns. Can he keep them alive long enough to enjoy freedom in a liberated Poland, or will the Nazi occupiers discover the Jews and kill both them and the man keeping their survival a secret?

No matter how well a movie like In Darkness captures the realities of the Holocaust, no matter how emotionally draining and dramatically intense the film may be, regardless of how well it's made, one's instant reaction is to measure it against Steven Spielberg's bar-setting masterpiece Schindler's List, just as any combat film, World War II or otherwise, is now measured against Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. To be sure, Schindler's List and In Darkness are two radically different movies, telling different stories from different perspectives and with a dramatically different tone and visual styles. Yet the comparison seems valid because of the shared historical subject matter, but it's also perhaps unfair to judge a movie absolutely against an all-time masterpiece, similar or otherwise. With that in mind, and while In Darkness doesn't match Spielberg's film in any category, this picture stands strongly on its own, but it's not without problems. It's sometimes a challenge to keep straight the characters beyond a few primaries. That's not necessarily due to any language barriers, but in part because it's simply difficult to see what's happening with any real clarity -- this movie is terribly dark -- but also because the movie's population is probably a little bit bigger than a film of this length, scope, and style can effectively support. But to be sure, the picture's themes -- which are far from revelatory -- are easy to spot and the picture plays in such a way that audiences cannot help but feel, to a general degree, the emotional burden the film creates and carry it within long after the credits roll. But whether it ends well or not, coming out of In Darkness yields a fairly hopeless feeling, leaving audiences not sure of what to do other than carry a regret for something over which they hold no control.

Indeed, perhaps the biggest drawback to In Darkness is that disconnect with the characters. Never does the audience feel intimately involved with those in hiding, particularly not as they might during a viewing (or reading) of something like The Diary of Anne Frank. In Darkness does well in the telling of its story, but not in making the audience feel as if they are living the story. No, this is more like a completely detached experience, the film only challenging its audience to feel for the characters, not live amongst the filth and excrement and stench and, most importantly, the fear, the fear of being caught, the fear of death, the fear, even, of life, of a life moving forward under some of the worst conditions one might possibly imagine. To be sure, the movie makes for a haunting, stomach-churning experience with strokes of dramatic intensity, though in large part because of a natural human reaction of disgust at the entire situation, not because of the picture's ability to draw the audience into the moment. Additionally, the picture feels slightly overlong and somewhat dramatically repetitive. That's due in part to the lack of total immersion and the failure to better develop the secondary characters. Yet the film works well as-is, but it fails to achieve greatness on a thematic and absolute emotional level. Director Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa) crafts the movie brilliantly in terms of technical execution. The film positively recreates the era right down to the last cobblestone above ground and chipped brick underneath. And the film's inability to absolutely immerse the audience in the moment doesn't lessen the situation or make any less relevant the story; it's simply a case of a movie not quite achieving the level of excellence of its admittedly masterful and nearly impossible-to-top peers.

In Darkness Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

In Darkness may offer a fairly gritty viewing experience, but Director Agnieszka Holland's film was captured digitally, and the results are always visually beautiful. There are moments when the digital sheen gives way to a rougher appearance that suits the mood and drained color and sense of despair, and there are moments of incredible clarity and unbeatable attention to detail. Said clarity is simply outstanding from the first shot to the last. The transfer's ability to so easily capture every last little textural nuance on cobblestone, bricks, building façades, worn wooden materials, faces, clothes, even dust and debris will amaze. This is easily one of the sharpest, most vivid, and most tremendously detailed images on the marketplace. The film spends much time in the darkness below ground, and those scenes above favor a fairly gray, limited palette. But the image captures splashes of color with pinpoint precision. Bright blues and a yellow building façade impress with unmatched accuracy up against the drab, dreary gray-shaded surroundings. Black levels are critical to the film's success, and Sony's transfer captures with ease very balanced blacks that are perfectly dark and haunting but not so much so that the image goes unseen or, on the other end of the spectrum, unnaturally bright. Even in the darkest corners, the transfer's strengths -- tremendous details and balanced colors even in low light -- reinforce the digital shoot's high yield. The image suffers from no major bouts of blocking or banding. This is a handsome, impeccable transfer from Sony.

In Darkness Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

In Darkness features the Sony-standard DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack, and the results come as-expected. The track features a fairly unique musical experience. Rarely is it prominent and the most intense use of it comes in a smooth orchestral scene in chapter eleven that plays with unbeatable precision, spacing, true-to-life clarity, and a quality low end. Often, ambience is the centerpiece element. The opening moments feature fine woodland ambience and the sound of popping gunfire in the distance. But the bulk comes in the underground, where scurrying rats; splashing and flowing sewer waste; and a disquieting, chilling, and lingering hollowness fills the stage. These elements are presented with wonderful accuracy and transform the soundstage into the frightening and filthy underground environment. Certainly, there are heavier audible happenings. Underground, the muffled sounds of screaming and gunfire are as emotionally chilling as they are sonically enveloping. Above, the same sounds play with the expected accuracy and crispness. Gunfire enjoys a prominent, heavy, rattly, real-life feel, and driving rain in one late scene and the flood waters which follow play with skin-soaking and ribcage-rattling accuracy, respectively. Dialogue plays cleanly and through the center save for when the action demands otherwise. English and English SDH support the Polish language track. This is a wonderfully ambient, finely engineered masterpiece of a soundtrack.

In Darkness Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

In Darkness contains nearly an hour's worth of conversational supplements and deleted scenes intermixed into the second piece.

• An Evening with Agnieszka Holland (1080p, 29:23): The director fields questions about the project's background, its content, filming in the sewers, shooting digitally, set construction, the work of the cast, the picture's sexual content, the contrast of life against darkness, filming the Holocaust, character arcs, music within the film, editing the film and its final length, working with Sony Pictures Classics, costumes, and screening the film for Krystyna Chiger. With Moderator Anne Thompson.
• In Light: A Conversation with Agnieszka Holland and Krystyna Chiger (1080p, 28:01): The film's director was unaware that one of the film's subjects was still alive. In 2011, Holland met with Krystyna Chiger on Polish soil. Here, the two discuss the picture and the experience, intercut with deleted scenes.
• In Darkness Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:02).
• Previews: Additional Sony titles.

In Darkness Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In Darkness tells a terrible true story. It's expectedly difficult to watch, even as the movie never quite develops its characters -- its secondary characters in particular -- to satisfaction or manages to truly draw the audience into the underground hideout and have them experience as closely to firsthand as possible the true terrors of life and death as they struggled to survive. But In Darkness is a very well made, sometimes gripping, emotionally draining, and important film, even if it only leaves the audience feeling rather hopeless but at least hopeful in a reinforcement of the human spirit and will to live. Perhaps that more than any other is what the film aims to achieve, the reinforcement of good ideals, of perseverance through literal and figurative darkness, that living and seeing something through is worth the difficulties that most will, thankfully, probably never experience beyond the cinema screen. In that regard, In Darkness is a success, but one can only wonder what the movie might have been had it ironed out a few issues and drawn its audience closer to the moment. Sony's Blu-ray release of In Darkness features fantastic video and audio. An hour or so worth of extras are included. Recommended.