Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Miami Rhapsody Blu-ray Movie Review

When They Were Young

Reviewed by Michael Reuben July 18, 2011

Before Sex and the City made Sarah Jessica Parker world-famous, she was a veteran actress who'd appeared on Broadway as a child and in supporting parts in films such as Footloose, L.A. Story and Ed Wood. Three years prior to slipping on Carrie Bradshaw's Manolos, Parker played the lead in writer-director David Frankel's Miami Rhapsody, which, despite superficial differences and a PG-13 rating, could be seen as a sort of "dry run" for the kind of sophisticated urban romantic comedy that would shortly launch Parker into stardom. Frankel would go on to direct half a dozen episodes of Sex and the City, as well as several others HBO series (Rome, Band of Brothers, From the Earth to the Moon), before achieving box office success in 2006 with The Devil Wears Prada.

Miami Rhapsody received very limited distribution, which may have had something to do with its style. In both subject matter and technique, Frankel drew heavily on Woody Allen's approach in films like Annie Hall, Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters, and even though Frankel added his own personal stamp -- notably a female protagonist's point of view unlike any you'd find in an Allen film -- the association was too strong to overlook. (It didn't help that Frankel cast Mia Farrow in a major role.) The mid-Nineties were the low point of Allen's reputation after his break-up with Farrow and marriage to Farrow’s adopted daughter, and a film evoking associations with Allen was no doubt deemed too hot to handle by Disney, which co-financed and released the film.

Miami Rhapsody is no overlooked masterpiece, but today it's possible to enjoy the film for Frankel's often clever dialogue and for performances by an interesting cast, many of whom would go on to bigger and better things. Frankel obviously has a great eye for casting. Just as he spotted Emily Blunt for Prada when she was relatively unknown, he filled Miami Rhapsody's ensemble with interesting faces, some familiar, some not, who were perfectly suited to their parts. Included among them was supermodel (and occasional criminal defendant) Naomi Campbell, who gave probably the best performance of her career in the role she was born to play: a bored, self-indulgent fashion model.

The film's framing device is a visit by Gwyn Marcus (Parker) to a new doctor, whom we never see because the camera puts us in the doctor's position. Since it's Gwyn's first visit, the doctor is taking basic information, including whether Gwyn is married. And thereby hangs a tale.

Gwyn's live-in boyfriend, Matt (Gil Bellows, soon to be the man Ally McBeal follows to law school), proposed to her on a dock, and Gwyn said yes, even though her family is an array of cautionary tales about marriages gone awry. Her parents, Nina and Vic (Farrow and Paul Mazursky), barely communicate anymore; indeed, each one prefers to confide in Gwyn, with her mother airing suspicions about her father's cheating, and her father denying that anything's going on. Then, to Gwyn's astonishment, her mother confesses that she's recently started an affair with a much younger man: Antonio (Antonio Banderas, still perfecting his English), a Cuban male nurse who works at the retirement home where Gwyn's grandmother now resides.

Gwyn's siblings don't instill any greater confidence about marriage. Her younger sister, Leslie (Carla Gugino, most recently everyone's favorite defense lawyer on Californication), is a hopeless romantic who married for love. The vows she wrote and recites with her pro football player husband, Jeff (former Houston Oilers safety Bo Easton), are so corny that everyone at the wedding can barely stifle their giggles. But romance quickly gives way to real life, and before the honeymoon is over, Leslie and Jeff are quibbling over their differences. Among other things, Jeff's parsimony about finances collides with Leslie's free spending (money being a common source of marital strife). Shortly after the wedding, Leslie is out shopping with Gwyn and runs into an old high school acquaintance, Mitchell (Jeremy Piven, long before Entourage). Now a successful dentist, he confesses to Leslie that he used to have a crush on her. Uh-oh.

Gwyn's brother, Jordan (Kevin Pollak), is struggling with the upheaval that some marriages experience when children arrive. His wife, Terri (Barbara Garrick), now pregnant with their second child and caring for their first, is exhausted and hormonal, and neither partner feels as they did when they first got together. Jordan has fallen into an affair with Kaia (Campbell), the wife of his business partner. The situation is fraught with explosive possibilities.

As each new revelation shakes her faith, Gwyn goes home and shares her concerns with Matt, who responds with some version of that-won't-be-us. But her doubts continue, and the situation gets more complicated when Gwyn, who writes for a magazine, is offered an enticing job writing for a local TV show but with one big downside: she has to relocate from Miami to Orlando. At about the same time, Matt, who works as a zoologist at the Miami Metro Zoo, is offered a fellowship . . . in Zaire. Now the couple really is faced with some hard decisions.

Miami Rhapsody is entirely dialogue-driven, but Frankel is clever enough to overlap conversations with the scenes they describe, so that there's plenty of visual storytelling to accompany the talking. The dialogue is witty, but it doesn't have the punchline rhythms of Woody Allen's scripts or Nora Ephron's, and it doesn't go for the caustic zingers that would become the trademark of Sex and the City. We're in Miami, not New York or L.A., and our protagonist is someone who, despite everything she's seen, hasn't yet surrendered to cynicism. She may have lowered her expectations, but she hasn't given up hope. In musical terms, a rhapsody denotes a composition that's free-form and open to improvisation. In common parlance, it suggests an emotional state of hope and enthusiasm, which are the qualities that Gwyn keeps trying to find in herself -- and if not in herself, then in that permanently upbeat young Cuban, Antonio, who seems to have done so much good for her mother and grandmother.

Miami Rhapsody Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Miami Rhapsody is one of the catalogue titles from the Disney collection (in this case, the Buena Vista Pictures label) being released on a barebones Blu-ray by Mill Creek Entertainment. The source material used for the 1080p, AVC-encoded transfer shows more white specks and dirt than I suspect would be allowed by a major studio on its own product from 1995, but when you subcontract to a small outfit and let them charge as little as $5 a Blu-ray, you can't expect them to put much effort into cleaning up the interpositive (or print or whatever they used). Fortunately, the damage is not so extensive as to be a major distraction. Minor gate weave is observable during the credits but is otherwise not an issue.

The Blu-ray's image shows substantial detail, which can be readily seen in such elements as the lacy wedding outfits at Leslie and Jeff's outdoor wedding and the elaborate reception afterward. The blacks aren't as deep as one might expect in nighttime scenes, although this may be a function of the original photography. Cinematographer Jack Wallner has worked primarily in television, and deep blacks were not considered desirable in a TV image in the mid-Nineties. (Indeed, one rarely sees them today.) Consistent with the locale, the color pallette tends toward the pastel (though, thankfully, not the fluorescent version one finds in Dexter). It's a naturalistic color scheme befitting the characters' real-world dilemmas (well, maybe not Kevin Pollak's Jordan; how many people have business partners married to someone who looks like Naomi Campbell?).

There is no obvious evidence of DNR or other digital tampering, but there is noticeable video noise, especially in darker scenes. This may appear at first glance to be film grain, but I studied it closely, and it doesn't have a film-like grain structure. It's transfer-induced noise. Since it's not especially intrusive, I'd prefer it be left there rather than have it taken off by a heavy hand that overdid the noise reduction. But it should serve as a reminder that DNR, judiciously used, has an appropriate place in the telecine bay.

Miami Rhapsody Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The original stereo track has been supplied in lossless DTS (and not Dolby Digital 2.0, as inaccurately listed on the Blu-ray jacket). The mix delivers the dialogue serviceably, along with the musical score by Mark Isham, including Isham's version of standards by Duke Ellington, the Gershwins and Sammy Cahn. A Louis Armstrong classic is also featured, along with Ella Fitzgerald's rendition of "I Only Have Eyes for You" and a lively mambo that Antonio plays for the residents of the retirement home. Even with Dolby IIx processing, the mix remains mostly confined to the front speakers.

Miami Rhapsody Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Technically there are no extras on the disc. But having recently reviewed thirteen (13) MGM titles mastered by Fox Home Video, I'm beginning to wonder whether items we used to think of as basic necessities, like a main menu and the ability to resume play at the same point where we stopped it, shouldn't be considered "special features". If so, it's worth noting that Mill Creek, a tiny independent purveyor of Blu-ray discs, has provided two features that the mighty Fox Home Video seems incapable of delivering, at least on their MGM product: a basic main menu, and the ability to stop playback and resume it at the same point.

Miami Rhapsody Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Whether one responds favorably to Miami Rhapsody depends on one's taste in movies. If you enjoy sharply written, well-acted films about relationships (and have patience for characters who don't always behave wisely or well), then the movie is worth your time. I have great affection for it. The Blu-ray isn't perfect, but the film is unlikely to get another hi-def release, and at least the price is right. Recommended, with appropriate caveats.