6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Set in 1980s seaside England, ten-year-old Edward's parents have turned their house into a retirement home. While his mother struggles to keep the family business afloat and his father copes with the onset of a mid-life crisis, Edward becomes increasingly obsessed with the ghosts and afterlives of the residents when they die. Edward's is a lonely existence until he meets Clarence, the latest arrival at the home, a retired magician and grieving widower who refuses to give in gracefully to old age. Their relationship begins at odds until Clarence notices that the boy is growing up even more fitfully than he is growing old. As they begin to face life together, Clarence comes to terms with his past, Edward tames his obsession with the unknown and they are both reminded of what magic is possible when life is lived to its fullest.
Starring: Michael Caine, Bill Milner, Anne-Marie Duff, David Morrissey, Rosemary HarrisDrama | 100% |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
BD-Live
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Back when I was in high school, I volunteered a few times at a nursing home to chat with the residents and call bingo numbers (“B-9, your tumor is B-9.”). I’m not going to lie and say it was a life-changing experience—this wasn’t exactly Tuesdays With Morrie—but after meeting several WWII veterans and a woman who showed me a medal she received directly from the pope, I did come away with the newfound belief that everyone has a story to tell. Most films about the elderly deal, in some way, with the unbearable sadness of memory, of stories aching not to be forgotten. But as anyone who has seen The Notebook can attest—well, not anyone, there is a contingent readily in love with Nicholas Sparks—this theme can easily get caught up in wistful longing and stuck in sloppy sentiment. Fortunately, Is Anybody There? mostly— mostly—skirts the weepy mire of mawkishness and delivers a double-sided coming of age tale that’s tender and involving.
Edward and The Amazing Clarence
Is Anybody There? finds a home on Blu-ray with a luscious 1080p/VC-1 encoded transfer that accurately represents the film's moody, nostalgic and beautifully toned cinematography. The mid-1980s setting is enhanced by the use of a film stock and color timing that, in many of the outdoor scenes at least, seems to emulate the look of vintage slide photography, with creamy colors and highlights that are nudged slightly off-white. Sky blues are dreamy and soft, the cemetery lawn is a lively green, and director John Crowley occasionally uses backlighting to magnificent effect, casting a halo of sunlight around Edward as he walks through an autumn afternoon filled with airborne motes of dust. The palette for interiors is subtler—this is a nursing home, after all—but the neutral tones give way to splashes of color, like pastel party hats, bright balloons, and deep crimson curtains. The film's grain structure is very fine—from a normal viewing distance it's only apparent in the darkest scenes—and overall clarity is excellent. The director frequently uses shallow depth of field to blur backgrounds, but the in-focus portions of the frame are nearly always sharp, clearly rendering Michael Caine's prickly stubble and the fine threading of Edward's sweaters. The film's presence is aided by nicely balanced contrast and black levels that are suitably deep. The séance scene in the basement is a little too dark, but the crush here seems intentional. Finally, I didn't spot any digital anomalies or compression issues.
To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from the film's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. My mental reasoning went something like this: it's a low-key drama set in a nursing home, so the audio is probably front-heavy and uninvolving. I was surprised, then, to find a track that is admittedly quiet, but very subtle and immersive thanks to some excellent sound design. During nearly every scene inside the nursing home we're aware of the other residents going about their business. For example, if we're watching Clarence and Edward talk in Clarence's room, we can hear the sound of distant TV chatter elsewhere in the house. We hear footfalls, muffled conversations, a dim clamor. This does a lot to convince us that we're in a real place. The rear channels are almost constantly engaged with some kind of ambience; birds chirp, a ghostly wind passes through, and there are even a few discrete effects, like when cars on the highway pass deftly between channels. The sound effects are surprisingly detailed. When Clarence lights up a cigarette we hear the click of the lighter, the sudden whoosh as the tip of the cigarette ignites, and the crackly crinkling as the paper begins to burn. When Edward listens through his headphones to an old man's dying breaths, the effect is chilling. And the mock séance that Clarence puts on is filled with loud ghostly rappings. Everything sounds full and clean and properly oriented. Joby Talbot's unconventional score is also outstanding, with plucked violin strings, chiming bells, and what sounds like a musical saw or a theremin. While almost all of the dialogue is perfectly prioritized and easily understood, a few of Michael Caine's lines sound slightly muffled, mostly due to his low and vowel-heavy voice. Other than that, I had no real issues with this convincing and detailed track.
Deleted Scenes (SD, 7:08)
No commentary, no making-of documentary, not even an EPK featurette. Unfortunately, this disc
ships with only a handful of deleted scenes—which are worth watching, by the way, and not just
your standard throwaway snippets.
Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment Blu-ray (1080p, 9:26)
Includes a promo for HDNet and high definition trailers for The Great Buck Howard,
World's Greatest Dad, Food, Inc., and The Answer Man.
It's all too easy to exploit the elderly for unseemly gags about forgetfulness and loss of motor control, but Is Anybody There? rarely plays Clarence's nascent senility for laughs, choosing to focus instead on the sorrow that accompanies debilitation. The story is tender but never maudlin, thanks to some brutally honest acting from Michael Caine. Adding to the package is a strong audio/video presentation with gorgeous cinematography and detailed sound design. These kinds of films are always divisive though—some people hate 'em, others cry real tears—so unless you're a Michael Caine completist, I'd suggest you try a rental before you buy.
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