He Was A Quiet Man (2007/Anchor Bay DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: C+
In one of
Christian Slater’s few challenging, ambitious roles in many years, he plays an
oppressed office worker who yearns for more and intends to get it in Writer/Director
Frank A. Cappello’s He Was A Quiet Man
(2007) has him becoming an unlikely hero when an office attack leads to a
relationship with a co-worker (Elisha Cuthbert) who has problems of her own.
For a
while, the film has good moments and possibilities, but in the end, it goes for
an obvious twist that is of the Shyamalan/Sixth
Sense kind that in this case trashes too much of anything that worked
including any character study and when it wraps up, you wonder why it was so
willing to self-destruct. Cappello could
have done better than this and it is a shame so many good opportunities were
missed.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is softer than one would like,
especially because of the stylized de-colorizing. There are some good shots here and a Blu-ray
comparison should be interesting. The
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is barely better than the Dolby 2.0 Stereo, with limited
surrounds and a focus on dialogue. The
sound kicks in sometimes, but sparingly.
Extras include deleted/alternate scenes, trailer, audio commentary by
the director and a making of featurette.
- Nicholas Sheffo
