Juliet, Naked Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Juliet, Naked Blu-ray Movie Review

Almost infamous.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 11, 2018

Fans can be a scary thing at times. I know — I’m a fan. My hometown of Portland, Oregon has become something of a mecca for expat Californians and New Yorkers, and one day in the post office I found myself standing behind a fantastic jazz pianist whose work had been hugely influential on me growing up. I started talking to the guy, and luckily he was actually mailing some charts (i.e., music) to a singer who's a friend of mine, so we had a bit of an ice breaker right there, but as I started talking to him about some of his 70s output, I was kind of amazed when he had little to no memory of songs which were indelibly imprinted on my mind for one reason or another. Something kind of similar happens in the whimsical if also kind of melancholic Juliet, Naked, a film which posits Chris O’Dowd as one Duncan Thomson, a guy who has had a long (as in multi- decade) obsession with a mysterious singer songwriter named Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke). Duncan even runs a website devoted to Crowe, whose output consists of one solitary album released years ago, one which even then didn’t cause much a ripple in the general cultural zeitgeist, but which for one reason or another instantly imprinted on Thomson’s mind in much the same way the jazz guy’s work did on me. Duncan lives with his long suffering girlfriend Annie Platt (Rose Byrne), who kind of semi-willingly tolerates her boyfriend’s “relationship” with another man, as she cheekily describes it in some opening narration. As one of the producers of the film mentions in the sole supplement accompanying the feature on this new Blu-ray, Juliet, Naked, based on a novel by Nick Hornby, might accurately be thought of as the “child” of two previous Hornby novels which got cinematic adapatations, About a Boy and (probably especially) High Fidelity.

Duncan works as a teacher, but most of his life seems devoted to his Crowe obsession, particularly his website, where he does video blogs and also hosts chats with other fans, all of which is quickly detailed in a number of vignettes. These moments also give at least a bit of background on the enigmatic and long elusive Tucker Crowe, who has more or less disappeared since his one and only official release. When an envelope arrives for Duncan purporting to have early demo versions of Crowe's one album, Juliet, it begins a domino effect that affects the relationship between Duncan and Annie, one reason being she (inadvertently) opened the envelope first and gave it a listen, thereby somehow "betraying" Duncan and his seemingly paramount need to be the first to experience such a rarity. Things spiral even further out of control when due to some intervening emails and other online pronouncements, Annie is actually able to make contact with Tucker, who it turns out is surprisingly accessible if also perhaps less of a noble poet philosopher than Duncan may presume him to be.

If the early emphasis on music and record collecting is perhaps unavoidably reminiscent of Hornby’s High Fidelity, it’s with the “real” introduction of Tucker that the film arguably starts to traffic in some About a Boy territory in terms of a somewhat fractured relationship between Duncan and his young son Jackson (Azhy Robertson). Duncan has been something of a ladies’ man through the years, and has a gaggle of kids, all by different mothers, and his relationships with all of them is dysfunctional on a good day. Tucker’s realizations as to his shortcomings as a father give considerable emotional heft to a story that otherwise might have fallen into too familiar rom-com tropes, even if in this case it’s arguable that both Duncan and Annie are engaging in “emotional affairs” with Tucker at various points in the tale.

The second half of Juliet, Naked tends to descend into relationship chaos, as both Duncan and Annie engage in more than merely “emotional affairs”, with Annie expectedly finding a bit of a spark when Tucker unexpectedly shows up England (and encounters a bit of a health scare), and Duncan finding comfort in the arms of another teacher at the college where he works. But rather than being played in traditional “slamming doors” farce fashion, the film attempts to dig a little deeper into these characters, exposing a trio (or even quartet, if you include Duncan’s teaching “associate”) of characters who are at various crossroads, even if they themselves may not initially recognize what’s going on.

The film is buoyed by some nicely tuned (no pun intended) performances, and as is discussed in the making of featurette included on the Blu-ray as a supplement, while there are three focal characters here, there’s little doubt that the oft mentioned “arc” probably belongs most solidly to Annie. All three characters go through rather substantial changes as the story progresses, but it’s Annie’s wry humor and increasing frustration with her lot in life that really propels the story forward, and Byrne is an effortlessly charming presence in the role.

Juliet, Naked Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Juliet, Naked is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists a couple of different Arri Alexa models as having digitally captured the imagery, but it fails to divulge what resolution the DI was finished at, though as usual I'm defaulting to 2K (as always, if anyone has authoritative data to the contrary, message me, and I'll happily update the review). This is often a rather bright and cheery looking presentation, one which makes the most of several rather luscious looking English locations. The outdoor work here really pops with some authenticity, with a nicely suffused palette and typically excellent detail and fine detail levels. As I've frequently mentioned in a number of outings captured with Arri Alexa products, there's a bit of what I term "digital murk" in some of the more dimly lit interior scenes, where things can look just slightly hazy and detail levels suffer, if only incrementally at times. While there's no really aggressive grading going on throughout the film, as can perhaps be gleaned in some of the screenshots accompanying this review, there are number of rather evocative lighting regimens utilized, some of which bathe certain scenes in amber or taupe glows, or cooler blue tones. Fine detail tends to prevail quite nicely through almost all of these changes.

Juliet, Naked Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Juliet, Naked's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 gets some significant energy from a rather enjoyable song score that pops up intermittently and which, according to the closing credits, features Ethan Hawke singing on several tunes. The film's emphasis on music allows it to exploit perhaps at least a bit more song usage "up front" (rather than as "merely" underscore), something that can tend to draw attention to its nice placement throughout the surround channels. The many outdoor scenes also offer excellent placement of ambient environmental sounds. Even some interior scenes, like a couple of sequences that take place in various cafeterias, offer a nice immersive quality with background spill informing the side and rear and channels. Dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly on this enjoyable and problem free track.

Juliet, Naked Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Juliet, Naked (1080p; 9:51) is standard issue EPK fare, though it nevertheless benefits from some good interviews.

Juliet, Naked Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Juliet, Naked arguably wobbles just a bit as it tries to mine comedy out of the travails of three unsettled characters, but it manages to find enough truth in some telling interchanges between people redefining their relationships that it manages to overcome a couple of stumbles along the way. Hawke, O'Dowd and especially Byrne are all charming in their own ways in this film, and the English locations are often quite beautiful and charming themselves. Technical merits are solid, and Juliet, Naked comes Recommended.