5.9 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A drama centered around a married couple who opened the first legal brothel in Nevada. Based on real events.
Starring: Helen Mirren, Joe Pesci, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Gina Gershon, Bai LingComedy | 100% |
Romance | 36% |
Sport | 16% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Taylor Hackford and Helen Mirren seem to be one of the rare Hollywood (at least some of the time) star couples who have managed to make it work. The two met on the set of Hackford’s 1985 film White Nights and were soon co-habitating, though they didn’t officially marry until 1997. Why the two never collaborated regularly after White Nights is a good question. A better question is why they would choose to break their non-collaborative spell with a weird film like Love Ranch. Loosely based on the real history of Nevada’s first legalized brothel, the infamous Mustang Ranch, Love Ranch seems to want to purposefully jettison just about everything about this story which could generate substantial interest, while focusing on the tawdry, soap operatic story of the decline of the marriage between the Ranch’s owners, Grace (Mirren) and Charlie Bontempo (Joe Pesci). The history of legalized prostitution is a subject rife with possibilities. The personal stories of the girls involved in the world’s oldest profession would certainly make a compelling film. Even the Love Story-esque ode to a couple’s relationship doomed by a fatal disease obviously has its heartstring pulling interest. But Love Ranch wants a little this-a and a little that-a, never really deciding what it’s really about. Though it’s anchored by yet another tour de force performance by Mirren (even if her American accent is a little shaky at times), Hackford seems to be considerably off his top game here, meandering through a murky story that has both too much and too little to generate sufficient impact.
Love Ranch hustles its way onto Blu-ray with an oddly inconsistent looking AVC encoded transfer in 1080p and 1.78:1. This transfer really comes alive in several establishing shot of the Nevada desert and Sierra Nevada mountains, as well as a lot of the outdoor segments, which reveal excellent fine detail (wow, has Pesci's face weathered over the years!). Contrast and saturation are also excellent in these exterior shots. The dusty, dirty environment, baked in saffron yellow and burnt brown tones, is well rendered here, with the blowing dirt never devolving into digital noise territory. The interior scenes are somewhat more problematic. There's nothing really wrong here, there's just not anything exceptional. Sharpness is OK, detail is OK, colors are OK. But nothing really pops the way it should in a stellar Blu-ray release. Instead we get a sort of quasi-upconverted look that is soft with low contrast. But when this film ventures out of doors, which it does quite a bit, there's a lot of crisp and detailed image to take in.
Other than some of the circa 1970s source cues, and the exciting fight sequence, there's not a heck of a lot of opportunity for Love Ranch's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix to really flaunt its sonic wares. Instead we get a pretty down and dirty intimate dialogue driven piece, and the 5.1 track certainly provides excellent fidelity and good separation. Surround channels tend to kick in with expected things like cars pulling in and the occasional crowd scene (the opening segment, a New Year's Eve party, does have some very nice immersion). But there's a noticeable uptick in immersion in that fight scene which suddenly electrifies the film about two thirds of the way through. Unfortunately, once that's done, we're back to a lot more dialogue. One blast of a gun does provide some good LFE toward the end of the film.
Love Ranch was obviously a project close to the heart of Hackford. In the Introduction by Taylor Hackford and Helen Mirren (HD; 8:28) he talks about the heartbreak of having to excise so much material. (It's also sweet to see Hackford and his wife, evidently in their own home talking to a minicam on a tripod, brush the hair out of her eyes). Those Deleted Scenes (HD; 56:54), with optional commentary, offer a wealth of added information that may have indeed made Love Ranch a more cohesive film. The deleted scenes are also available as the film plays via seamless branching by engaging the Heartbreak Mode. Hackford also contributes a Commentary but seems more intent on the film that he had envisioned rather than what actually ended up on the screen.
Love Ranch is a really interesting misfire. It's both too operatic for its own good, as well as annoyingly mundane in its treatment of its characters. There's such a great basis for a fascinating story here that it's surprising a better film didn't come of it. Still, Mirren is always a joy to watch, and Pesci chews the scenery with considerable gusto. The whole enterprise has the slight stench of degradation about it, probably suitable for the subject matter, but Mirren fans may well want to at least rent Love Ranch to see yet another fascinating portrayal by the iconic actress.
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