5.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A man awakens in a mangled car-wreck at the bottom of a steep cliff. Injured and trapped inside, with no memory of how he got there or who he is, he must rely on his most primal instincts to survive. But as he attempts to free himself from the carnage and escape an impossible situation, a darker side is revealed. Even if he manages to survive, the man may have to face the horrible consequences of an earlier, forgotten life.
Starring: Adrien Brody, Caroline Dhavernas, Jacob Blair, Ryan Robbins, Adrian G. GriffithsThriller | 100% |
Drama | 58% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Since his Oscar-winning, star-making turn in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, Adrien Brody has consistently defied what a Hollywood A-lister should be, and this is precisely what makes him exciting as an actor. You never know what kind of project he might turn up in next. One day he’s stylishly traipsing across India in a Wes Anderson production (The Darjeeling Limited), and then all of a sudden he’s starring in a genetic engineering-gone-wrong sci-fi flick (Splice). The latter half of his career has been defined by his willingness to avoid “safe” roles. This, after all, is the guy who made a giallo with Italian director Dario Argento—who hasn’t exactly been on top of his game these past few years—and then unexpectedly took the gun-toting hero lead in 2010’s Predators reboot. (Who saw that one coming?) He goes effortlessly from comedy to drama to grizzled action, from no-budget to big-budget and back again. In his latest film, the semi-successful indie thriller Wrecked, he takes on the one-dude-trying-his-best-to-survive-in-a-cramped-location genre, a type of story made recently popular by 127 Hours and Buried. While Wrecked isn’t nearly as good as either of those films, it is a showcase for Brody’s range and adaptability as a performer.
You expect most lower-budgeted independent productions like this to be shot digitally these days, but Wrecked actually features some wonderful, good-old-fashioned analog film cinematography, presented here via a faithful 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer. The print is in perfect shape—no specks or scratches, as you'd hope from a film this recent—and IFC has wisely avoided trying to smear out grain with DNR or artificially sharpen the picture with edge enhancement. Neither is needed. The fine-grained image has plenty of natural clarity on its own, amply revealed in close-ups of Adrien Brody's bruised face, his ratty, blood-spattered clothing, and the detailed flora and fauna of his immediate surroundings, from the textured fur of a mountain lion to the crisply defined tree branches and rock faces. Color is rich and saturated without ever seeming too pushed—the woods of British Columbia, where the film was shot, look wonderfully lush—and contrast is exactly where it needs to be. Black levels can be a bit heavy during darker scenes, where grain levels also spike, but both are acceptable trade-offs for the film's realistic aesthetic. (That is, the scenes would look bizarre if they were too brightly lit.) Aside from some light noise, I didn't spot any compression issues worth noting.
Silence plays a big role in Wrecked—Brody's character is alone with himself for almost the entire film—but not complete silence. The film's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track frequently brings his outdoor environments to life with rich and immersive sound effects. In several scenes, rain pours down all around, and this sounds especially convincing when it patters on the roof of the car. The roar of the river is also impressive; when Brody braves a section of white water, the LFE channel kicks in with thunderous bass response. Of course, there are also several instances of quieter ambience, and these sound great too, even if they don't stand out as much. A braver film might've gone entirely without musical accompaniment, but Wrecked does feature a minimalist score of sorts, which really on kicks in to underscore some of the more tense moments. The sparse dialogue is always clean and easy to understand, and there are no hisses, crackles, drop-outs, or other unacceptable audio errors. The disc includes optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles in easy-to-read yellow lettering.
Wrecked faces inescapable comparisons to 127 Hours and Buried, and compared to those two films, it inevitably falls short. Still, it's worth watching, if only for Adrien Brody's ragged performance, which certainly qualifies for tour-de-force status. The film looks and sounds great on Blu-ray—courtesy of IFC Midnight—but I'd suggest a rental rather than a purchase.
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