Inconceivable Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		1.5

Inconceivable Blu-ray Movie Review

. . .how this thing got made?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 25, 2017

There are any number of (hopefully) unintentionally comic aspects to Inconceivable, but among the funniest is that, according to some online reports, Lindsay Lohan was initially attached to project as both producer and star in some errant comeback bid. This mess of a thriller borrows significant plot points from older and at least relatively iconic films like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle but never works up anything approaching even the modest levels of suspense that the Rebecca de Mornay outing did. The film’s title is a supposedly clever play on the idea that Angela (Gina Gershon), the focal female of the story, is unable to have babies naturally and so resorted to an egg donor to produce her adorable daughter Cora. The film has already detailed the trials of a woman named Katie (Nicky Whelan, in the part originally claimed for Lohan) who has her own adorable daughter named Maddie. When a mutual friend named Linda (Natalie Eva Marie) introduces Katie to Angela, Angela invites Katie into the decidedly upper crust enclave where she lives with her doctor husband Brian (Nicolas Cage). To say that events that unfold thereafter strain credulity might be termed the understatement of the year, but suffice it to say Katie is not exactly whom she claims to be, and that there are indeed completely absurd connections between Katie, Gina and their daughters which push suspension of disbelief to the breaking point. Inconceivable might have been more accurately branded under a title more like Unbelievable.

The film begins with a brief prelude which seems to suggest the woman we’ll later come to know as Katie has been in an abusive relationship, one she “handles” with aplomb (and a nearby kitchen knife). The film quickly segues to detail the ludicrously perfect life of doctors Brian and Angela, happily married and doting parents to Cora. It’s all presented as a picture perfect suburban paradise, where everyone’s rich, entitled and beautiful (maybe excepting Nicolas Cage, but I digress). Already the film is on such patently ridiculous ground that the incredible series of coincidences and plot mechanics that follow simply add to an already well established feeling of unbelievability.

But of course it isn’t paradise, as Inconceivable starts to chart the woes of Angela in trying to have another child, something that Brian especially seems to want as well. The intersection of this need with Katie’s sudden entrance on the scene is so ridiculously pat, and Katie is such an odd, discomfiting individual from the get go, that the film never really develops suspense, merely trotting out plot points (including interstitial flashbacks meant to get everyone up to speed on just what a nut Katie actually is) and opting for occasional moments of angst.

In a way, Inconceivable reminded of me a much less artful take on some of the character traits and even plot points seen recently in the hugely entertaining HBO limited series Big Little Lies. An aggregation of too beautiful to be real women, all in their designer yoga pants, deal with their various issues, with at least one of them dealing with a history of abuse in both of these properties, but Inconceivable isn’t really interested in exploring the characters it offers, and instead is content to exploit hoary genre tropes at virtually every turn.

There is one other way in which Inconceivable and Big Little Lies intersect, and that’s with regard to a plot point that hinges on a pretty incredible coincidence that links various characters together. Big Little Lies manages to ameliorate the too convenient feel of its particular coincidence through structural artifices that make it seem less unlikely, but Inconceivable’s entire plot wouldn’t make sense without the central “surprise” (that any mystery and/or thriller fan is going to see coming from a mile off) that informs the whole reason behind Katie’s appearance. The film’s inability to really exploit even this unbelievable angle is perhaps one of the best clues as to the haphazard and generally nonsensical presentational aspects of much of this film.

Inconceivable Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Inconceivable is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.38:1. Cinematographer Brandon Cox manages to finally mention shooting with the Arri Alexa in the final nanosecond of his interview included on this Blu-ray as a supplement (an interview which is otherwise appropriately concerned with such things as how hot Gina Gershon is). This has the typically sharp, smooth and well detailed look of this technology, and perhaps due to a prevalence of really brightly lit and/or sunny environments, fine detail is really quite excellent across the board. The film is relatively free of any overt grading, and as such the palette looks natural and nicely suffused. There are a couple of effects dealing with Katie's (real or assumed) eye color which are kind of haunting and which give the film sudden, really vivid, pops of color. Several extreme close-ups offer really abundant fine detail in things like facial pores. A tendency to shoot into light or other regimens that cast effulgent glows on characters can lead to a slightly gauzy look at times, and there are a couple of nighttime or dimly lit sequences that suffer from a relative lack of shadow detail, but otherwise this is a precise and appealing looking transfer that has no compression issues to confront.

Inconceivable Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Inconceivable is a pretty talky thriller, and as such the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track has to provide immersion mostly due to ambient environmental effects as well as a smattering of source cues and kind of appealing, pulsing underscore by Kevin Kiner. Fidelity is fine across the board, with well handled prioritization and no kind of problems with distortion or dropouts.

Inconceivable Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Director's Commentary


• Behind the Scenes of Inconceivable (1080p; 11:41) is standard issue EPK fare, with snippets from the film, behind the scenes footage and interviews.


• Deleted Scene (1080p; 00:37) offers a bit more of Faye Dunaway.


• Cast / Crew Interviews (1080p; 52:38) include Nicolas Cage, Gina Gershon, Nicky Whelan, Natalie Eva Marie, Jonathan Baker (Writer / Producer / Director), and Brandon Cox (Director of Photography).


• Inconceivable Trailer (1080p; 2:11)

Inconceivable Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A game cast simply can't rescue some inartful writing and directorial shaping that doesn't seem to know how to properly structure either the dramatic or (especially) the thriller elements. If you're jonesin' for a film about a nutso nanny, stick with The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. Technical merits are strong for those considering a purchase.