Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

Tanner Hall Blu-ray Movie Review

Where's the originality?

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 29, 2011

Everything worth anything is both terrifying and beautiful.

Tanner Hall is the latest "Quirky Dramadey" that feels the need to tell the tale of young people formulating an idea of who they are through their off kilter adventures into burgeoning adulthood but that instead delivers a misshapen, sometimes incoherent, and rather bland go-nowhere story in the "coming of age" model that, yes, must include quasi-chic voiceovers, maudlin popular tunes, and strumming one-note acoustic guitar music meant to create some tone that's supposed to be a blend of teenage angst and hardship versus the breeziness, thoughtlessness, and self-discovery of adolescence. It's basically another in an ever-growing subset of films that try to replicate and one-up Juno, a film that deservedly garnered a bit of attention for its snappy dialogue and original styling, but please, enough with the Juno makeovers already. Tanner Hall so desperately wants to be the next "in" movie that everyone will just have to duplicate, the movie that its very mention in common vernacular will conjure up some magical vision of a young adulthood fairy tale that's as whimsically playful as it is issue-oriented serious. Eh, sorry. Tanner Hall plays around with a good, but far from original, set of ideas, but rather than try and do something different with them, the picture wallows in repetitiveness, follows the same cadence as every other Juno clone, fails to conjure up much meaning behind its four halfway interconnecting stories, and generally disappoints as a movie that doesn't even hide the fact that it wants to replicate, not innovate.

The girls of Tanner Hall.

Childhood chums Fernanda (Rooney Mara) and Victoria (Georgia King) are headed for another semester at their prestigious all-girls (and one guy) boarding school in beautiful New England. As the year begins, their educations and futures take backseats to the everyday drama of teenage girl life in the confines of the strict Tanner Hall. Fernanda finds herself in a burgeoning relationship of forbidden love with the older Gio (Tom Everett Scott), a married man with a baby girl on the way. Victoria attempts to stave off her mother's heavy-handedness and at the same time plots to undermine Fernanda's scandalous tryst. Meanwhile, Fernanda's pal Kate (Brie Larson) is using her time not to hit the books but to seduce an older professor (Chris Kattan) whose passion for his wife has been unceremoniously doused. Lucasta (Amy Ferguson), meanwhile, struggles to discover her own personal sexual identity. The girls scheme to find a way out of the school and, by extension, find themselves, but will breaking the rules help them to shape their uncertain destinies?

Tanner Hall suffers through a myriad of problems, all of which Directors Tatiana von Fürstenberg and Francesca Gregorini attempt to mask with their Juno, Daydream Nation-inspired stylings. Unfortunately, the film's various issues are only magnified by the film's obviously mimicking façade. The movie marches to no steady cadence, except in its effort to recycle, not even restyle, old material. The movie meanders a great deal between issues and characters and stories, which all on their own are superficially interesting to a degree, but the mishmash places the movie all over the map, and just as one story seems about ready to gain some traction, in comes the next with a sudden jolt, a structure which leaves audiences more unfulfilled than anything else. Worse, all of these issues have been dealt with before, and dealt with in a more engaging and coherent manner than this. Notions of forbidden love, shaky friendships, uncertain sexual identities, hurtful play, disobedience, and general teenage girl drama/mayhem all come into play, but to what purpose? The Lucasta and Kate characters are at best filler, while the Fernanda/Victoria relationship is introduced, forgotten, and resolved in one of the more anticlimactic finales in recent memory that, yes, resolves some of the film's plot lines but jumps in from nowhere after giving way to half a dozen or so other focal points and about twice as many ancillary characters throughout the bulk of the movie.

Tanner Hall also fails to better take advantage of its setting. The cinematography is good and does well to capture the beautiful New England fall landscape, but the picture fails to really capture the sense of forced isolation within the confines of this all-girls boarding school, and even when the characters earn their freedom, there's very little change in tone, only setting. The characters are disappointingly flat, too, each one defined by little more than their singular attributes -- sexual identity, obsession with death, flirtatiousness, and forbidden love -- and to make matters worse, the movie is so scattered that even the baseline character traits are glossed over in favor of the quirkier whole. The cast does a fair job all things considered, but can do little with the scattershot script. Rooney Mara is steady as the film's "lead" character, defined by the one who enjoys the most screen time and the one whose story is given the most attention, as poorly developed and finalized as it may be. Even at the end, it's unclear what's to become of her and her relationship with Gio, not that it much matters considering most of the other plot lines are conveniently swept under the rug or, at best, provided an unsatisfying conclusion that doesn't really bring them full circle or solidify their identities or purposes in the film.

Tanner Hall Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The good news is that Tanner Hall sports a flawless 1080p Blu-ray transfer. Anchor Bay's image yields breathtaking clarity which aids a great deal in revealing the film's picturesque cinematography. Fine detail is striking, whether brick and mortar building exteriors or warm wooden accents inside the school buildings. Leaves and grasses enjoy flawless definition; there's no clumping or mushiness here. Clothing and facial textures are perfectly complex and eye-catching throughout. The color palette favors a steady golden tinge; faces are often defined by the photography's warm texture, but such seems to be the filmmaker's intention. Outdoor greens, bright red apples, and other brilliant hues, despite the warmer push, are otherwise nicely balanced and never appear too dull or excessively vibrant. Black levels are spot-on, neither crushing out details nor going a dark shade of gray. A light grain structure rounds the image into a handsome cinematic experience. This is what new-release Blu-ray is all about.

Tanner Hall Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tanner Hall's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack is steady and effective. It's no big-sound extravaganza, but it supports the material nicely. The clichéd musical notes are airy and very spacious, enjoying great clarity and a general transparency that's about as good as a live performance. The complimentary Rock/Pop tunes, however, play with the slightest feeling of being cramped and not quite as energized and natural as the film's other musical presentations. Atmospherics are nicely placed, generally favoring the front soundstage but proving to be sonically effective nevertheless. Chirping birds, rustling leaves, and the like create a nice, realistic New England atmosphere; it's just a shame that the back channels aren't a little more involved. Dialogue is clear and remains center-focused; a few scenes feature voices echoing nicely around the virtual room, such as during those taking place inside Mr. Middlewood's classroom. This is a good, balanced soundtrack that won't redefine Blu-ray audio but that gets the job done with relative ease and almost perfect clarity.

Tanner Hall Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Tanner Hall contains only the film's trailer (1080p, 2:20) and an audio commentary track with Writer/Producer/Directors Tatiana Von Furstenberg and Francesca Gregorini.

Tanner Hall Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Tanner Hall never settles into a groove. Its characters are underdeveloped, its plot is far too scattered, its themes are made irrelevant, and its purpose is unclear. The movie seems more concerned with its style rather than its substance, believing that merely replicating the cadence of something like Juno will lead to success. Unfortunately, the movie only comes off as a generic, repetitive wannabe that lacks substance and, worse, basic storytelling attributes. The movie might be awful, but the good folks at Anchor Bay didn't take that as an excuse to punt on this one. While an audio commentary track and a trailer are the only extras to be found, the disc does sport masterful 1080p video and a good lossless soundtrack. Still, this one's a rental at best.