6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Several residents of a small Southern city whose lives are changed by the arrival of a stranger with a controversial plan to save their decaying hometown. In the midst of today's challenging times, each of the colorful citizens of this close-knit North Carolina community, will search for ways to reinvent themselves, their relationships and the very heart of their neighborhood.
Starring: Orlando Bloom, Colin Firth, Ellen Burstyn, Patricia Clarkson, Amber TamblynDrama | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
My father’s parents live in a small town in rural western Maryland that hasn’t changed much in the last forty years. For the better, that is. It used to be a minor industrial hub—with coal mines, iron processing plants, a paper mill, and a tire factory—but the local economy dried up a generation ago, leaving the town a husk of its former self. Every time I visit, I notice the gradual, inexorable decline—the houses growing more dilapidated, the businesses shuttering, the rust and peeling paint and trash-strewn yards. It’s as if the place loosed a collective death rattle back in the ‘70s and has been decomposing ever since. Of course, it’s not as simple as the town’s hardy Scottish and German stock just giving up. As the national economy moves—largely away from industry and manufacturing—so goes the fates of the countless thousands of similar blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nowheresvilles that were chiseled out of the American wilderness by blue collar labor. How can these towns evolve to keep up with the times?
Unlike an increasing number of low-budget movies, Main Street was shot on 35mm instead of digitally. The film makes a decent showing on Blu- ray, where it features a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer, but the non-descript, almost style-less style of the lighting and cinematography makes for an image that's merely perfunctory. Realism is the attempt here—the picture isn't poeticized or dramatized at all—and color is always natural-looking. The palette isn't particularly vibrant, but the neutral tones are dense, black levels are deep, and contrast, if never exactly punchy, is at least balanced. There's more-than-adequate high definition detail to be noticed in close-ups, but overall the image is a bit soft. (Though I suspect this is intentional.) More importantly, grain hasn't been wiped out by DNR and there's no sign of adverse edge enhancement. Aside from some light noise, there aren't really any compression issues either. This is a stable and consistent transfer, even if the film isn't very visually stimulating.
As you've probably gathered from the review thus far, Main Street is an extremely quiet film, so you shouldn't expect much from the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track included here. Like the cinematography, the sound design is simple and rather unadorned. The emphasis is on clear dialogue reproduction—voices are always clean, unmuffled, and easy to understand—and the softly complementary score, which never gets loud or forceful enough to make much of an impression. The rear channels aren't called into action often, but you will hear some quiet street ambience from time to time, along with heavy rain during the big storm near the end of the film. In terms of dynamics, the mix gives off a somewhat flat response, but clarity is excellent throughout. No real complaints here. The disc includes optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles.
A Day Behind the Scenes of Main Street (1080i, 5:06) Pretty much straight-up behind-the-scenes footage, with no interviews or commentary. Deleted Scenes (SD, 3:04) Main Street Trailer (1080p, 1:57) Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment (1080p, 6:43)
Like the kind of depressed small towns it attempts to comment upon, Main Street just doesn't have much going for it. The story has a serious drama deficit, it's dull, and it's shot with the style-less low-budget simplicity of a made-for-TV movie. Magnolia's Blu-ray looks and sounds decent, but here's my advice—if you come across Main Street, just keep on driving.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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