Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Winter in Wartime Blu-ray Movie Review

Sony just keeps cranking out great movies and quality Blu-ray releases.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 26, 2011

Rule one in wartime: Keep your mouth shut.

The desperate cling to innocence is set against the backdrop of war and occupation in Director Martin Koolhoven's smartly-crafted wartime Drama that centers on the seasonal life of a young boy struggling to find himself and understand the world that's been built around him in Nazi-controlled Holland. Despite its wartime setting, Winter in Wartime isn't a traditional War picture. Instead, it's a film about courage, understanding, sacrifice, integrity, and the heightened awareness and rush into adulthood that's a necessary transformation in a world that's all but erased a boy's childhood and molded him into a man beyond his years. Whether he can survive the trials, hone his mental toughness, and put aside his natural instincts in the face of a crisis situation is what truly defines the movie; the World War II setting is merely a backdrop for a far more universal tale that applies no matter the year on the calendar or the dot on the map. It's a compelling Drama shaped by real human emotions, its story bookended by two scenes that answer the question as to whether a winter in wartime can forever destroy the one thing that so often seems to define a child's existence: true happiness.

Traumatized.

Holland, 1945. The German army has occupied a small and secluded village. Young Michiel van Beusekom (Martijn Lakemeier) is a wide-eyed boy who's grasped the severity of the situation into which his life has been thrust, but only when he must become directly involved in life or death decisions as they relate to an underground resistance movement will he truly come to appreciate and fears within and the true realities of his world. Michiel is given the task of acting as a courier for an important resistance communique; when the recipient is killed, he takes it upon himself to deliver the message to a downed English fighter pilot named Jack (Jamie Campbell Bower) who is wounded and in hiding in a small and well-camouflaged underground bunker outside of town. Meanwhile, Michiel finds himself torn between his father and his newly-arrived uncle Ben (Yorick van Wageningen), the former of whom is the town's mayor and a reluctant peacekeeper of sorts between the locals and the Germans, and the latter of whom is a dedicated resistance fighter. As Michiel's relationship with Jack and his desire to help him escape increases, so too does his understanding of the world around him and his father's and uncle's roles -- both overt and covert -- in the war effort. Michiel must shed his boyhood notions and mature beyond his years if he's to not only physically but also emotionally and spiritually survive the harsh winter that's befallen his home and heart.

Winter in Wartime plays as if a perfectly-tuned machine, the film excelling in every regard and remaining steady and true to its form and intentions throughout. It never devolves into a shoot-em-up sort of War picture but instead remains tightly focused on its dramatic ventures and always keeps the story of the young boy's struggles through his loss of innocence and rapid maturation as the single focal point. Every action yields a consequence that greatly affects Michiel, and it's how he responds to every situation -- physically and emotionally both -- that's the film's defining element and its greater purpose. Still, the film maintains a fine balance between its dramatic elements and a few well-placed, smartly-crafted, and subtly exciting elements; though there are no big action scenes per se, audiences will find the inner conflicts and turmoils to be more than a fair substitute with the more basic and low-key high-energy scenes making for a nice supportive element. This is indeed a story-first, character-driven film; that almost seems like a rarity anymore, but as a picture in the mold of something like Steven Spielberg's most under-appreciated and arguably finest film, Empire of the Sun, it's certainly in good company.

Reinforcing the picture's strong story and quality themes is equally fine direction and a collection of faultless performances. Director Martin Koolhoven manages to seamlessly pull his audience into the frigidly cold environment of 1945 Holland while also figuratively engaging his viewers as if they were faced with the sort of decisions, actions, and repercussions that challenge young Michiel throughout the film. Winter in Wartime enjoys, then, more than an air of authenticity; it's a seamlessly-constructed picture that seems to get all of the little background details just right, but they remain just that: little nuances that only serve to reinforce, rather than define, the story that's far more universal than the limitations of its setting. The performances are absolutely seamless; Martijn Lakemeier as Michiel instantly becomes the character and demonstrates no problem in both grasping and conveying the story's most critical thematic elements both overt and nuanced. He rides perfectly with the character arc, becoming wholly absorbed in the adventure and his transformation all the while internally struggling to maintain at least a semblance of his childlike innocence which may be the only thing that can see him through the difficult winter that will challenge all he knows and threaten his very way of life. In support is a fine and complex performance by Yorick van Wageningen as Michiel's uncle Ben.

Winter in Wartime Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Winter in Wartime features a first-rate 1080p transfer. In other words, it's typical Sony. The film opens by showcasing infallible blacks while hinting at the sort of strongly-detailed and naturally-filmic imagery the remainder of the picture has in store. Indeed, a gentle layer of grain accentuates the film's wonderful detailing that seamlessly pulls viewers into the snowy streets and wooded areas in and around a small Dutch town. Whether intricately-woven clothing textures or the delicate detailing of freshly fallen snow, Sony's transfer handles every element both major and nuanced with equal care and precision. Colors are deliberately understated and wintertime bleak; the image is overwhelmingly defined by shades of gray and blue, which reinforce both the setting and the themes that define the story. Natural depth is strong, the image is inherently sharp and crisp, and there are no traces of any print damage or unsightly digital manipulations. Though it's not exactly eye candy, this transfer is nevertheless faultless in execution.

Winter in Wartime Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Winter in Wartime features a perfectly-balanced DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless track that handles both the film's most active elements and most subtle nuances equally well. The picture opens with the heavy rumbling and rattling sensation as a crippled low-flying aircraft zooms across the sky and crashes in the distance. Between the sharp zoom, the inherently heavy elements of the crash, the accuracy with which the sound traverses the listening area, and the superb sense of actually being there, this is a demo-worthy clip. The remainder of the track doesn't offer anything else much more sonically exciting than that, but balance is the name of the game. The film's sound design is faultless; natural ambience, both woodland and manmade in town, are seamlessly integrated into the track. Music is crisp and accurate, well-balanced and natural, even as it plays over an old rickety radio and the sound comes across as necessarily degraded and sloppy. Gunfire is accurate and potent, and dialogue remains perfectly balanced and unflappably natural within the confines of the center speaker. This is nothing short of a first-class master audio presentation.

Winter in Wartime Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Winter in Wartime contains only one primary extra.

• The Making of Winter in Wartime (480p, 24:24): This Dutch-language (with English subtitles) supplement looks at the project's history, the picture's themes, the work of the cast, the picture's unique style, and more. This piece is constructed primarily of cast and crew interview snippets and numerous clips from the film.
• Winter in Wartime Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:06).
• Previews: Additional Sony titles.
• BD-Live.
• DVD Copy.

Winter in Wartime Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Winter in Wartime is a high quality motion picture that transcends its setting and surrounding elements and creates a universal picture about the loss of innocence but the need to retain it in a world turned upside down. It's not necessarily a depressing film; in fact it's quite uplifting at times, even through all of the seen and implied Horror within it. With a tight story, near faultless craftsmanship, and superb acting, it's no wonder that Winter in Wartime has been so well-received around the globe. Sony's Blu-ray release of Winter in Wartime features the studio's expectedly superb video and audio presentations, but the real blemish comes in the disheartening absence of a more thorough supplemental package. Nevertheless, this release comes highly recommended based both on the strength of the film and the quality of the technical presentation.