Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

The Grifters Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 2, 2009

Produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by Stephen Frears, "The Grifters" (1990) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Optimum Home Entertainment. Unfortunately, there are no supplemental features to be found on their disc. Region-B "locked".

I see it now.

The Grifters follows the deeds of three con artists: Roy Dillon (John Cusack), a salesman who steals as often and as much as he can; his mistress, Myra Langtry (Annette Bening), who also has a gig of her own, though Roy knows nothing about it; and his mother, Lilly (Angelica Houston), who has been loyal to the mob for years but is finally getting ready to call it quits.

When Roy gets beat up in a bar and ends up in ER, Lilly immediately shows up to help him out. When Myra does too, all hell breaks loose. Before the women part ways, they tell each other exactly what is on their minds, initiating a rivalry that complicates everyone’s work.

In the days ahead, Roy and Myra end up in La Jolla, to relax and spend some much-needed time together, However, at the right time, Myra reveals that she is a con artist too and begs Roy to let her join his ‘business’. While Roy and Myra’s relationship begins evolving, Lilly, who has figured out that Myra is not in love with her son but trying to get her hands on his savings, proceeds to teach her a lesson.

The Grifters was British director Stephen Frears’ first American project. Before it, he had made a name for himself with two other films -- the quirky comedy Prick Up Your Ears and the period dramedy Dangerous Liaisons. The latter earned seven Oscar nominations and took home three of the coveted statuettes.

Frears directed The Grifters two years after Dangerous Liaisons. When Oscar nominations were announced, The Grifters picked up four, including one for Best Director, but later did not win any of the coveted statuettes. It probably should have. It is a wonderfully conceived, acted, and directed film, which probably deserves the reputation of a genre classic.

The three con artists are excellent and, perhaps most importantly, look very authentic. In their acts, the three continuously surprise with brilliant improvisations revealing something meaningful about their personalities, too. As a result, the drama that flourishes in the first half does not have a lot in common with the one that wraps up The Grifters.

Lilly and Roy's mother-son relationship could have been the centerpiece in an entirely different film. It could have been a neo-noir film again, but one that examines the damage their relationship has sustained because of their inability to walk away from the ‘business’.

Fans of The Grifters should track down Miguel Bardem’s film Incautos. In North America, it is distributed under the more revealing title Swindled. This film teams up the great Argentinean actor Federico Luppi with Pedro Almodovar’s frequent collaborator Victoria Abril and youngster Ernesto Alterio. The three also play skilled con artists whose antics are extremely similar to the ones seen in The Grifters.

The Grifters Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Stephen Frears' The Grifters arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Optimum Home Entertainment.

I am staring to believe that there is some sort of conspiracy going on with this film. I've gone through four different releases of it -- an old laserdisc, two Region 1 DVDs by Miramax, and a Dutch Region 2 DVD -- and they all had their fair share of problems. First, it was the lack of a proper anamorphic transfer, then it was the macroblocking issue, and finally there was the lackluster audio treatment. Here we are again with yet another release of The Grifters, this time around on Blu-ray. Well, once again, I have mixed feelings about a disc that I want to like but am unsure if I should. Here's why:

The good news. Contrast and clarity are pleasing. As far as I am concerned, they represent a major upgrade over the Miramax DVD. The macroblokcing that plagues the DVD is also nowhere to be seen on the Blu-ray. Generally speaking, the color scheme is also a lot more convincing. The best news, however, is that heavy digital noise reduction has not been applied on this transfer.

The bad news. It is fairly easy to tell that Optimum Home Entertainment have used dated elements to bring The Grifters to Blu-ray. There are a number of tiny flecks and scratches that I noticed. I don't believe that they would detract from your viewing experience, but some of you might be slightly annoyed by their presence. There are some stability issues with the color-scheme as well. For example, some of the indoor scenes look a bit problematic. I also spotted quite a bit of mild edge-enhancement.

Overall, this Blu-ray disc represents an obvious upgrade over the existing Miramax DVD release. There is a lot to like about it, but I think that it could have easily looked a lot better. A single clean-up of the tiny flecks would have done miracles. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" disc. Therefore, unless you have a native Region-B or Region-Free player, you won't be able to access the disc's content).

The Grifters Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio track on this Blu-ray disc: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track and English LPCM 2.0 track. I opted for the English LPCM 2.0 track and later on did a few random comparisons with the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track for the purpose of this review.

I purposely decided to watch the film with the with the English LPCM 2.0 track. I am very well familiar with it, so as soon as I received my disc, I tested a few scenes with it and found that I liked a lot more what I heard with the English LPCM 2.0 track than with what I heard with the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track.

The dialog is actually slightly easier to follow on the English LPCM 2.0 track. On the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track there are certain scenes where the dialog isn't as clear as it should be. There isn't much activity in the surround channels on the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, but the little that you would hear I believe it interferes with the dialog (the final scene is great example). This being said, there are no pops, cracks, or hissings that I detected. Elmer Bernstein's score sounds lovely. For the record, once again Optimum Home Entertainment have not provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.

The Grifters Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Most unfortunately, there are no supplemental features to be found on this Blu-ray disc.

The Grifters Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I am going to recommend this Blu-ray release of Stephen Frears' The Grifters, assuming that a similar one won't appear in North America any time soon. Yes, its transfer reveals some issues, but the film most certainly looks the best it ever has. That said, these budget Blu-ray discs Optimum Home Entertainment are offering would likely be the only way for us to see quite a few older films in high-definition. I don't mind, as long as the great price tags they arrive with remain unchanged. RECOMMENDED.