5.8 | / 10 |
Users | 2.8 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
A childless couple adopts an abandoned little girl, but the girl's natural parents reappear to reclaim her -- and they're violent outlaws, who live on the run and had to leave their daughter while escaping the scene of a crime.
Starring: Keith Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Moira Kelly, Vincent Spano, Cynda WilliamsThriller | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080i
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 1.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
The Tie That Binds is an unusual collection of one-offs. It's the only feature film directed by screenwriter Wesley Strick, who wrote Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear and has co-written various projects since then, including, most recently, the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. It's the sole film from a script by Michael Auerbach, who has since become an editor for television fare like Dancing with the Stars (go figure). And it was the one and only film to star young Julia Devin, a nominee for best supporting actress at the Young Artist Awards the following year for her affecting portrayal of a lost child trying to make sense of a world that even the Brothers Grimm would find baffling. Devin disappeared from acting after this film, but her haunting presence is the chief reason (though not the only one) to see The Tie That Binds, even in this problematic Blu-ray presentation from Mill Creek.
This is another of those Mill Creek Blu-rays that is incorrectly labeled as "1080p" when it is really 1080i. Fortunately, in this case, the interlaced format did not appear to have a negative impact on image quality; I did not detect obvious instances of combing or other forms of video noise associated with interlaced presentations. Overall, the image was reasonably detailed and filmlike, and the colors were decently saturated and natural, consistent with the usual look achieved by cinematographer Bobby Bukowski. Occasionally, though, director Wesley Strick seemed to be reaching for a touch of Scorsese-style subjectivity in his use of color, as in a scene where Dana runs after Janie, who is wearing red, and the light briefly glows red as each of them passes through a hallway. Compression, artifacting and other digital errors aren't an issue, but the source material does have a few moments with significant print damage, and that's something that probably would have been fixed if the film had remained with the studio instead of being farmed out to Mill Creek. Any such flaw is jarring, and the worst one occurs during the film's tense finale, which is especially unfortunate.
The DTS-HD MA 2.0 track (incorrectly labeled "2.0 Dolby Digital", as is typical of Mill Creek) is the disc's greatest failing. The film was released in Dolby Digital and, given the "Spectral Recording" logo that appears in the end credits", almost certainly had a 5.1 track. The 2.0 mixdown that appears on the Blu-ray is one of the worst I've ever heard from a 5.1 track (either that, or it's the worst Dolby Surround mix ever made at a time when even novice technicians should have been experts at creating 2.0 surround). Voices are sometimes indistinct, and individual words can be hard to make out -- an especially galling issue on a disc that doesn't include subtitles or closed captions. Graeme Revell's score remains embedded in the front speakers and never projects out into the room to surround the listener. It also sometimes has a warbling quality, as if it were being played back on an old reel-to-reel tape machine with excessive amounts of wow and flutter. Perhaps the most serious of the track's sins is a recurrent surround artifact of which the origin is unclear, but it adds a kind of "whooshing" sound at all sorts of inappropriate moments, as if someone were running a vacuum cleaner in reverse. Odd sounds are routinely used in thrillers to put an audience on edge, but this one simply distracts and annoys. The Disney organization has every right to license out its second- and third-tier properties to an organization like Mill Creek, just as Sony is sending much of their back catalogue to Image Entertainment. But Disney ought to send Mill Creek proper elements for both audio and video. And if Disney is doing so, and it's Mill Creek who is making the short-sighted and foolish decision to provide degraded 2.0 audio on these titles originally released in 5.1, then they should wise up and get a clue. Even a lossy 5.1 track that sounds like the original is preferable to a lossless remix that sounds terrible.
As usual with Mill Creek, none.
Despite the letdown of an ending, The Tie That Binds is worth seeing for Julia Devin's performance, for Keith Carradine's scary turn as John Netherwood, and for the low-key but effective chemistry between Vincent Spano and Moira Kelly as they attempt to learn how to be parents. But don't buy Mill Creek's Blu-ray. Rent it, or write them a polite letter insisting that they remaster it with a proper soundtrack.
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