6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.
Starring: Julianne Moore, Millicent Simmonds, Michelle Williams, Oakes Fegley, Cory Michael SmithDrama | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.38:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
For those searching for such things, there is perhaps no better (recent) example of the often patently insane vagaries of the film business than Wonderstruck. To wit: have you heard of this film? (And I understand that my “statistical sample” may be somewhat skewed, as my hunch is more people than average visiting this review may well have heard of Wonderstruck, and indeed may have even, you know, seen it.) Just to provide a little personal context, it was a bit surprising to see Wonderstruck appear in my review queue for a couple of reasons, the first of which is that I had heard very little about this film during its rather brief theatrical exhibition, aside from some industry articles covering its supposedly rapturous reception at Cannes, where it competed for the Palme d’Or and reportedly received a rather long standing ovation. I frankly promptly forgot about even reading such articles until I saw the title pop in my queue, which is perhaps one salient example of how well (?) the film was promoted during its theatrical exhibition. With regard to promotion, the second surprising thing is that I had received no promotional emails from any of Lionsgate’s public relations firms about a forthcoming Blu-ray release, something that struck (no pun intended) me as downright odd, given the fact that the film was directed by Todd Haynes and featured his frequent muse Julianne Moore. The oddness continued once I ordered a copy from Amazon and discovered that the domestic release is a BD-R, evidently manufactured on demand though I frankly don't remember seeing their disclaimer about that when I placed my order some time ago (they’ve since updated their listing to include such important information, and in the meantime, a United Kingdom release from Studio Canal has been announced, evidently looking like a “real” pressed Blu-ray disc). What makes all of this all the more astounding is that Wonderstruck is easily one of the more magical films I’ve personally seen in the past year (and perhaps longer than that), one that marries a rather unique “dual” storyline to some presentational aspects (including homages to old school silent cinema) that are certainly not traditionally thought of as being in Haynes’ wheelhouse. All of this is to say, if you haven’t heard of Wonderstruck before stumbling on this review, this is one of those exceptional sui generis offerings that really deserves to be seen and appreciated by a much wider audience than has greeted it thus far.
Wonderstruck is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.38:1. While I've had occasional BD-Rs come across my review courtesy of some labels like Film Rise that (used to) only release such burned products, I have to say I think this may be the first major label release on BD-R that I've personally reviewed (my memory may be failing me, which I readily admit). I was pleasantly surprised with the look of this transfer. Despite being both digitally captured and shot on film, there's a nicely homogeneous appearance throughout, to the point that I personally would be hard pressed to state which segments were filmed and which were digitally captured. Detail levels are generally very good to excellent, though it must be stated that some scenes are intentionally almost Impressionistic (see screenshot 9, part of any early dream - or nightmare - sequence), and a great deal of the seventies set tale is bathed in a kind of sickly jaundiced yellow tone, something that along with low contrast, can often lead to a lack of fine detail, even in relative close-ups. The yellow tint can be very easily seen in several of the screenshots accompanying this review. The black and white footage tends to have more consistent fine detail levels since it isn't fighting with grading choices, and contrast and black levels look fine throughout. Bitrates were nicely high throughout this presentation, rarely if ever falling below 30 and often getting into the mid- or high 30s.
As awesome as Wonderstruck's visual proclivities are, the sound design of the film, including Carter Burwell's truly monumental score, should delight ardent audiophiles, and it is all relayed splendidly on the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The black and white sequences basically play like silent film, and so Burwell's score is typically the sole "resident" of the surround channels, but the seventies material is alive with the bristling urban sounds of Manhattan, and it is further bolstered by a number of great source cues (including David Bowie's "Space Oddity"). There is some extremely effective mixing and/or tweaking going on in the segues between eras especially, but the entire sound design of the film is really quite ingenious and will repay any attention paid to it. Fidelity is fine throughout, delivering dialogue, effects and score without any problems whatsoever.
Those who saw Martin Scorsese's Hugo, a big marquee entry that was also based on a Brian Selznick tome, and who felt that that story relied a bit too much on convenient coincidence and happenstance may well feel exactly the same about Wonderstruck. But those open to a really unique experience, and one that I personally would have never thought Todd Haynes would have offered, may find a lot to like, maybe even love, about this film. The story emphasizes that finding where we belong is at least as important as belonging itself, and that's a valuable lesson for anyone in any time period. Performances are excellent, and I have to say if I were an Oscar voter, Marlee Matlin would not be the only deaf actress to have a statuette in her collection. Technical merits are very strong, and Wonderstruck comes Highly recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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