THE MOVIE

John Nolan (Jeff Goldblum) lives a pretty ordinary life, he’s a life insurance salesman and he is rather successful at what he does. Although you get the impression that despite his ordered life, he is somewhat unsatisfied. One night, on the way home from work, he stops at his local liquor store to buy a bottle of wine, but when he notices a scratch on the label, he asks for another bottle. A store clerk called Auggie (Kim Coates) goes out back to find him a new bottle, during which time the store is entered by an armed man demanding money. Auggie is shot by the robber and later dies in hospital.

John becomes obsessed with Auggie Rose and blames himself for his death. He believes that if he simply took the wine with the scratched label, Auggie would still be alive. John soon learns that Auggie was an ex-con, and served 20 years in prison for armed robbery, only to die three weeks after his release. He also becomes frustrated when he learns that Auggie won’t even get a proper funeral. Next John goes to Auggie’s apartment and he even visits his cellmate in prison. It seems that his obsession is also slowly beginning to take its toll on his relationship with his girlfriend Carol (Nancy Travis).

Soon John (or rather Auggie) receives a mysterious postcard from girl called Lucy (Anne Heche). He finds out that she responded to an ad Auggie placed, and that the two of them used to write to one another while Auggie was in jail. Lucy has never met Auggie in the flesh though, so this presents an opportunity for John to pursue a relationship with her. And so he begins to lead a double life. But assuming the identity of a dead man, especially an ex-con also brings its dangers…

THE TRANSFER

Video:

Auggie Rose is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen and is 16:9 enhanced. This is a reasonably good video transfer with the majority of scenes having a reasonable level of detail. There is a little bit of grain to be seen during the scenes shot in front of light coloured interiors, but thankfully there didn’t appear to be any unsightly MPEG artefacts.

Colours are used rather effectively in this film, they aren’t super bright but there are some quite nice contrasting scenes. For example the cool green of the hospital and the warm yellow of the John’s house. Auggie’s apartment is also rather dynamic in terms of colour, it’s dark in the beginning when John first visits, but once Lucy appears on the scene, it seems almost instantly brighter. The flashbacks also have subtle cool blue-green or yellow look about them.

Audio:

Sure this DVD may only have 2.0 channels of sound, but for what it is, this is a pretty decent transfer. I was actually surprised at how rich the original musical score by Mark Mancina and Don Harper sounded. Moreover, dialogue is always clearly intelligible, not that it would be too hard, given that the background music usually subsides during the scenes with dialogue.

THE EXTRAS

The only extra present on this DVD is a theatrical trailer. It is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 channel sound. First thing you will notice, however is that the sound quality is a little lacklustre, sounding somewhat flat when you compare it to the film itself. Running time is 1.46 minutes.

SUMMARY

Written and directed by Matthew Tabak, this film tells the story of a John Nolan, a man who becomes obsessed with the life of Auggie Rose, a store clerk who is killed in front on him. Jeff Goldblum is really very good in this film and I must say that it’s a nice change to see him in a more serious role. The visual transfer is reasonably good and the soundtrack is also okay despite having only 2.0 channels of sound. Unfortunately the only extra to be found on this DVD is a theatrical trailer.