The Cry Of The Owl (2009/Paramount DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: D Feature: C+
Writer
Patricia Highsmith is best known for her series of novels based on the
murder/con artist/identity thief Tom Ripley, but she has done more and for the second
time, her Cry Of The Owl has been
turned into a theatrical feature film.
The first time, it was the French director Claude Chabrol who made it
into a film back in 1987 and we covered it a while ago. You can read about it and the storyline at
this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/116/Cry+Of+The+Owl
This
time, the artist is played by Paddy Constantine (Bourne Ultimatum, Cinderella
Man), the neighbor he is interested in by Julia Stiles (also the Bourne films, The Devil’s Own) and the James Gilbert (TV’s The Tudors) plays the angry fiancée. While Chabrol is an overrated director, Jamie
Thraves is an underrated writer/director/filmmaker and one of the few in the
wasteland of Music Videos that has made important works, like Charmless Man for
Blur and Just for Radiohead.
The cast
is good and this is better than the Chabrol version, but it cannot escape the
confines and limits of the original work and lands up not being much better,
yet it is very intelligently done.
Locations are not bad and this is better than many recent Ripley outings
as well. This is one any thriller fan
should take a look at for even if you are not completely satisfied, you’ll
enjoy the mature tone and ambitious attempt at the kind of serious thriller we
do not see enough.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image was shot in Super 35mm film format by
Director of Photography Luc Montpellier (Away
From Her) uses the scope frame well, but neither he or Thraves get fancy
about it, yet we get solid compositions without shaky camerawork or other
sloppiness that we see too often these days.
The day scenes look better than the nighttime shots, which in this
format are a little weak thanks to the DVD format’s limits. Would like to compare it to a 35mm print or a
future Blu-ray. The Dolby Digital 5.1 fares
better as even though this can be a dialogue-based mix, we get plenty of good
soundfield, good surrounds and fine recording quality overall. Jeff Danna’s score is sparse and we get one
too many vocal tunes. There are no
extras, save previews before the film.
- Nicholas Sheffo
