The Hotel New Hampshire Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

The Hotel New Hampshire Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf December 25, 2015

An adaptation of a John Irving novel, 1984’s “The Hotel New Hampshire” struggles to remain faithful to the source material while trying to find its own footing as a movie. It slices and dices Irving’s narrative to fit the confines of a screenplay, and director Tony Richardson doesn’t have the vision to keep the effort together, frequently losing control of this coming-of-age drama that offers glimpses of farcical encounters, terrorism, sexual assault, incest, profound depression, tragedy, and madness. Irving isn’t one to deny himself the opportunity to orchestrate a kitchen sink tale, but the translation to the screen is consistently rocky, resulting in a painfully awkward feature, but one with fine performances and an ambitious goal to capture the sweep of life.

After meeting while working together at a hotel during World War II, Win (Beau Bridges) and Mary (Lisa Banes) build a life together, raising their children while retaining a dream to own their own hotel one day. Finding a remote place next to a college campus, Win and Mary open The Hotel New Hampshire, with kids Frannie (Jodie Foster), John (Rob Lowe), Frank (Paul McCrane), Lily (Jennifer Dundas), and Egg (Seth Green) joining the staff, becoming a tight unit of work and play as various customers come through town. As the 1950s fade, the family experiences the highs and lows of life, with John particularly sensitive to change as he experiences different lovers, but only desires Frannie, who’s also working through growing pains, creating a unique bond among the siblings as their domestic adventure takes them from America to Vienna, meeting depressed lesbian Susie (Nastassja Kinski), who wears a bear suit everywhere she goes.

It’s difficult to tell exactly where “The Hotel New Hampshire” begins, as it carries a non-committal attitude to the idea of storytelling, basically slipping into the flow of the narrative without identifying a starting point. The family is most important to the production, and Richardson is quick to dig into personal lives, employing a flashback to catch up with Win and Mary’s story of romance and history with bears, with the pair befriending Freud (Wallace Shawn), a loopy Viennese man who’s partnered with a motorcycle-riding brown bear. While the parents (and grandparent, played by Wilford Brimley) are important, the meat of “The Hotel New Hampshire” belongs with the children, focusing most intently on John and Frannie, with their incestuous interplay and lifetime of jealousy powering what passes for tension in the feature. As much as the screenplay tries to respect parental influence, the movie is really about the teenagers and their efforts to mature, encountering all types of setbacks and misguided passions along the way.

What’s so troubling about “The Hotel New Hampshire” is how it flippantly mixes tonality, failing to match Irving’s command of idiosyncrasy. Richardson is all over the place with the picture, which swings from “Benny Hill”-style farce to nightmarish acts of violence, including gang rape for Frannie orchestrated by her high school crush, and vile bully, Chip (Matthew Modine, who also plays Frannie’s Viennese temptation). Light and dark aren’t juggled to satisfaction here, leaving the feature a mess of ideas without proper leadership. There’s already an episodic nature to the story, but “The Hotel New Hampshire” turns the movement of life into a puzzle that’s never solved, with viewers only receiving glimpses of psychological insight before the director comically speeds-up footage or casually passes by disaster, trying to pack as much Irving into the endeavor as possible.

There are subplots galore in “The Hotel New Hampshire,” with the saga of Lily (a little person who grows up to pen the best-seller “Trying to Grow”), Susie (a rattled, frustrated woman who bonds with John over their shared love for Frannie), and Frank (a gay man who tries to lift family spirits by stuffing the family dog) competing for attention. Events, including the death of major characters and the family move to Vienna, are communicated without emphasis, making significant changes feel trivial. The story goes everywhere, but the movie generally feels inert, rarely conquering storytelling confusion, and Richardson’s emphasis of Irving’s “Keep passing open windows” theme is useless when so little is known about these people beyond a few key details.

The film doesn’t feel lived-in, but performances are more successful with nuances than Richardson. It’s strange to see Lowe so boyish and neutral, delivering acceptable work as a teenager burning through sexual experiences that can’t quite flush incestuous urges out of his system. Foster is also steady as Frannie, working with a more unsettled depiction of confusion. Also hitting proper points of distress are Bridges and Brimley, who both find clarity of character in Richardson’s cinematic fog.

The Hotel New Hampshire Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation certainly doesn't emerge with ideal freshness, resembling an older master that's finally found its way to Blu-ray. Granted, inherent cinematographic softness remains, maintaining a period look, but detail doesn't retain presence throughout the viewing experience. Some close-ups offer a minor amount of texture, but definition isn't a priority here. Colors are slightly muted, but the basics in hues are handled adequately, capturing hotel greenery and interior decoration. Skintones, while on the flat side, remain in the realm of natural. Grain is unfiltered, emerging with real thickness at times. Delineation isn't strong, with moments of solidification. Source encounters some faint speckling and scratches.

The Hotel New Hampshire Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 2.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix carries the listening experience with satisfactory clarity, finding dialogue exchanges emerging with emotional purpose, handling different performances comfortably while group activity is open for inspection. Scoring is loud but effective, selling the orchestral mood without steamrolling over the human factor. Atmospherics register as intended, managing exterior encounters and hotel bustle, and a few incidents of violence, including a bombing, add a touch of heft to the track.

The Hotel New Hampshire Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Theatrical Trailer (1:19, HD) is included.

The Hotel New Hampshire Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"The Hotel New Hampshire" plays like a feature that was initially six hours long, hastily cut down to 109 minutes for maximum playability. It's a highlight reel for Irving fans, making sure to underline familiar conflicts and dramatic temptations, remaining mindful of the European transition that occurs midway through the movie. It's easy to spot what was originally intended here, and there are pockets of the film that expose a rich sense of family life and the passage of time. But it doesn't take long for "The Hotel New Hampshire" to return to state of chaos, watching characters lose definition as scenes loaded with meaning and feeling are reduced to a bare minimum of information, striving to push the effort along as fast as possible. It's a cinematic sprint that's tiring to keep up with.