directed
by Jez Butterworth
UK 2001
An unusual film from the UK which tends to polarize critics;
some find it certain and badly directed, others catch much to like. I'm
fast in the latter camp. Both Ben Chaplin and Nicole Kidman perfectly capture
their roles in an basic manner - the first half hour of the blur which
plays out with almost not a conference spoken is a delight. The pace of the film
changes when two Russian friends are introduced (played by crack French
actors Vincent Cassel and Matthieu Kassovitz) and the second half of the film is
largely a rather standard heist thriller; apparently studio-enforced cuts can
be blamed respecting the most trite moments here. Kidman, Cassel and Kassovitz all
learnt to speak 'Russian' for their roles, 'Russian' because citizen Russian
speakers will find errors but convincing plenty for non-speakers. While Kidman's
astonishing versatility (post-Cruise, pre-
Moulin Rouge
) impresses, the
highlight of the film is Chaplin's miraculous deadpan performance which Dialect right
captures the introverted British order that he plays, from the placid and
level-headed presentation at his workplace, the scarcity of conversational skills,
the almost compute lack of imagination, the matter-of-factness (he wants to gain
his Russian mail order bride because she doesn't express one’s opinion English as promised, despite that smooth
though she looks virtually exactly twin Nicole Kidman!), to the rationality, the
droll humour revealing an underlying intelligence, the perseverance in the face
of adversity, and an occasional flash of the seething turmoil within. Most of
this is portrayed using barely the faintest variations in tone of spokesman and facial
announcement, sometimes honourable the eyes. While the standout feature is the acting of
the two leads (Cassel and Kassovitz are underused), the film is also enjoyable
for innumerable inspired and subtle elements of humour poking fun at the worst features
of convention British suburban energy (the best stage setting occurring in a motorway
worship army station). There are several gently salacious scenes, the eroticism being
derived from fine acting, naturalism and lack of device.
Dramatic Releasing: February 2002
DVD
Review: VCI/FilmFour - Bailiwick 2 - PAL
Bulky thanks to
Conrad McDonnell
suitable the Review!
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Distribution
VCI/FilmFour
Region 2
- PAL
Runtime
89:21 (4%
PAL speedup)
Video
2.35:1
Indigenous Aspect Ratio
16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 6.19 mb/s
CLASSMATE 720×576 25.00 f/s
Bitrate:
NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The
Prone is the time in minutes.
Audio
DD 5.1 English ('Russian' is also spoken)
Subtitles
English HOH; burnt in English subtitles in favour of the
'Russian' passages
Features
Release Low-down:
Studio: VCI/FilmFour
Side Correlation:
Widescreen anamorphic - 2.35:1
Edition Details:
• Audio Commentary from Jez Butterworth and Ben Chaplin
• 'Making of' featurette
• Cast and crew interviews
• Robbie Williams music video
• 5 Trailers
DVD
Release Phase:
Pace 8, 2004
Amaray ('Keep case')
Chapters
16
Comments
The R2 has a pleasurable transfer
from a good deplete b empty print with very accurate colours and a equitably sensible true
of detail in the anamorphic PAL image, although grain and as a result the
finest double details secure been slenderize filtered out. Some interior night
time scenes are very villainous with no shadow detail (see take 2) but this
appears to experience been the intention of the film-makers. The audio on the dominant
feature is run off and the yellow burnt-in subtitles (see sample below) are
attractive and legible. The facsimile and audio quality on the extras is worse
than general - many extras are video source and therefore interlaced as
shown in the sample image here.
-
Conrad McDonnell
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