THE MOVIE

Tom Hanks has just lost his wife. His son, upset that his dad is still mourning, calls a radio talk back show one night to get him some help. On the other side of the country, Meg Ryan overhears the radio conversation, and something strikes a chord within her. Soon, she is infatuated with Tom and the thought of meeting him, and destiny and Tom’s son conspire to try bring them together.

Virtually one long tribute to the romantic black and white films of old, it is a simple and calculated tale determined to tug at the heart strings and elicit a tear whenever possible. Judging by the popularity of this film, it seems to have worked. Many people - mostly guys - have dismissed this film as a “chic-flic”. Even within the film itself they give a knowing nod to this perception as an in-joke, and milk it for all it’s worth. And why the hell not? A comedy tries to succeed by appealing to one sense, action movies appeal to another emotion (or some might say a lack of emotion) and this film doesn’t try to do anything different from that.

While this movie doesn’t bring anything new to the table, or over tax you in any way, it was still an entertaining bit of fluff that was an easy and enjoyable way to pass 100 minutes.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

I’m happy to say that I don’t have a thing to complain about, here. Never having seen the original print, I can only guess that this transfer is a very faithful reproduction. With a very smooth and clean look, with a slight soft focus and muted colours, this DVD presents the picture very well in anamorphic 1.85:1. You won’t be distracted by flaws in the print, nor by any artifacts, because the transfer seems to be mostly free from blemishes. I’d guess that the majority of viewers of this film would be viewing it on the average sized television set (68cm), and if so, I’d be extremely surprised to find anyone having a bad word to say about it, as I know I was very happy with the look.

Audio:

The main audio track for this film is in English DD2.0 Surround. It’s interesting that it wasn’t found necessary to give it a revamped DD5.1 mix, as seems to be fairly common with many DVD releases. But with a talky movie such as this, it really isn’t needed anyway and it is served quite well by what it has. The movie is predominately biased towards the centre channel, and relays the dialogue quite well. Stereo imaging is fairly minor and rear surround use is trivial and barely detectable, although I’m happy to say that you won’t care because there isn’t much for the sound to do other than keep you focused on the speech and good soundtrack up front. So, as with the image quality, I found the sound just fine and don’t have any complaints.

THE EXTRAS

Considering the popularity of the movie over time, they’ve aptly given us the relevant extras it would seem to deserve. We have an Audio Commentary with Director Nora Ephron and Julia Ephron who in a very relaxed fashion walk us through the movie, telling us about the inspirations, small trivial and little insights into the production. A good extra is the Isolated Music Track which features both the score and soundtrack, and will get a few plays in my house on lazy Sunday afternoons. The Behind The Scenes Featurette is the usual 6 minute thing that doesn’t add much, if anything, to the movie or commentary, but is still welcome on disc. We also get a trailer for the movie, basic Talent Profiles and a Picture Disc to finish off.

SUMMARY

Never thought I’d hear myself say it, but I did enjoy the movie. The a/v quality is perfectly fine and shouldn’t let you down. Devotees of this kind of film will snap it up, and for everyone else I’d say to open your minds and perhaps give this film a go before dismissing it completely. There is far, far worse out there.