6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
In the high-stakes world of espionage, Russian FSB operative Gregory Lioubov (Jean Dujardin) will do whatever it takes to crack an international money-laundering operation, and American banker Alice (Cecile de France) is the key. The only problem is that Lioubov isn't the only one after Alice. Now Lioubov must find out whom he can trust and use everything he knows in order to get to the truth and bring down a powerful Russian oligarch.
Starring: Cécile De France, Jean Dujardin, Tim Roth, Émilie Dequenne, John Lynch (I)Drama | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
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, English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Much like its titular entity, Möbius twists and turns like an errant pretzel, but it also ends up not going anywhere. This multinational production has a starry and attractive cast, an okay premise, and one or two nicely suspenseful moments, but overall it is a confusing and ultimately uninvolving film. The main culprit here is that very confusion. Most viewers, if they’re anything like I am, are going to be wondering about major plot points at several key times through the film. Aside from such passing mysteries, there’s a bigger, underlying issue the film faces, which is that unless you’re a wizard in global finance, you’re probably not going to understand the basic setup of the film, which involves a derivatives trader named Alice (Cécile de France, Mesrine: Killer Instinct) who gets swept up in competing intelligence sagas involving Russia’s FSB (evidently the successor to the KGB) and the United States’ CIA. A Russian operative codenamed Moise (Jean Dujardin, The Artist) who is out to get the goods on a Russian finance magnate named Rostovsky (Tim Roth, Pulp Fiction) is hoping to use Alice as his way into Rostovsky’s inner sanctum, but Moise instead gets invited into Alice’s inner sanctum himself (if you catch my drift). Playing out in the background are a coterie of American spies who are evidently secretly manipulating the FSB, and thus Moise, to their own ends, which also involve Alice and Rostovsky. As confusing as the foregoing précis may sound, I assure you it’s light years ahead of the actual presentation in the film, where things just kind of happen willy-nilly and the audience is left to play catch up. Why, for example, is the FSB (and by default, the CIA) even interested in Rostovsky? Your guess is as good as mine, and frankly I don’t even have one. What is the FSB’s goal, and how is Moise involved? Again, no clue. If patient audience members are willing to put aside such fundamental matters as comprehension, there’s a decent enough through line of secret lovers attempting to rendezvous despite hordes of prying eyes keeping tabs on them, as well as some really gorgeous scenery courtesy of the Monaco setting, but Möbius is one twisty, winding path that ends up being largely without destination.
Möbius is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer. While just occasionally a bit on the soft side, overall this is a really nice looking high definition presentation which benefits immensely from the truly spectacular scenery on display. Director Eric Rochant and cinematographer Pierre Novion take full advantage of the locales with some fantastic aerial establishing shots that feature impressive depth of field. Midrange and close-ups offer excellent fine detail (see screenshot 4, where seemingly every individual whisker on Dujardin's chin is easily discernable), and the entire presentation features accurate looking color. Contrast is dialed down a bit in some interior scenes, perhaps purposely to increase tension. The presentation is free of any overt artifacts and there are no issues with digital tweaking of the image (beyond some color grading that was done at the DI stage).
Möbius' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is officially listed as being in English, but the film is actually multilingual, with French and Russian being spoken in about equal measure. All of the dialogue comes through quite cleanly and clearly, and a couple of nice nightclub scenes offer great surround activity, nicely capturing the bustle and cacophony of Monaco's nightlife. Ambient environmental noises also dot the surrounds as the film ventures out of doors. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is surprisingly wide for this largely dialogue driven film.
- A Great Couple of Cinema (1080p; 4:18) focuses on Jean Dujardin and Cécile de France.
- An International Cast (1080p; 3:59) does similar duty for some of the rest of the cast, including Tim Roth.
- The Möbius Ribbon (1080p; 1:53) has various cast members briefly discussing Möbius strips.
I love a good thriller, and even more, I love a good thriller with a convoluted plot that requires me to stay on my toes. But after having watched Möbius all the way through once, and then even revisiting several key scenes twice more, I can't state with any certainty what the film is really about. Sure, there's lots of daring do involving two lovers who think they're doing one thing when they're actually doing another (not to mention each other—but I digress yet again), but the central issues of why everyone is after Rostovsky and who is working for whom are never adequately explained and without those elements resolved, everything else is just kind of an admittedly pretty house of cards built upon thin air. The film is certainly scenic, and the cast is unbelievably attractive, but from a pure plotting perspective, Möbius is a twisty mess. Those with an interest in the title will nonetheless not be disappointed by the technical presentation, which is excellent.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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