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Movie
To those of you who are regular readers of my reviews it will come as no
surprise that one of my favorite genres of film is the romance. Be it a
comedy or a drama I'm always up for a good romantic picture. When you think
about it this is unusual for a heterosexual male like myself since most
guys tend to run and hide from these pictures. I guess my love for these
movies stems from the fact that I'm a sensitive and romantic guy at
heart. I've had a few relationships in my short life, some successful
while others were not so successful. Add into that the one that got away.
Throughout most of high school I felt as if I loved this one girl. Nothing
ever came of it and to this day I still think of how things may have been
different if I had the courage to ask her out.
Love in the movies more often then not plays out like a fairy tale. Boy
meet girl, they date and in the end things they are happy together. This
usually isn't the case in the real world. People's feelings get hurt,
longing occurs and not everything couple has a happy ending. The biggest
difference between Hollywood and the actual world is that films hardly ever
show real relationships, ones with deep emotional connections. Hollywood's
definition of love is superficial and lacking and only scrapes the surface
never nearing the true meaning of the word. In the countless number of
movies I've seen in the last few years only a handful have had what I deem
to be a real relationship based on human emotions. In essence where the
couple found true love. The two best examples of this and films that will
ever hold a special place in my heart are Kevin Smith's 1997 film "Chasing
Amy" and Lea Pool's "Lost and Delirious".
"Lost and Delirious" tells the story of lives of three girls at an
all-girls boarding school in Canada. Pollie (Piper Perabo) is the lost soul
who searches desperately for her birth mother. Her roommate Victoria
(Jessica Pare), Tory for short comes from a wealthy family and often
summers in Europe. Tory and Pollie have a unique friendship in that they
often kiss one another and on occasion even sleep together. Their new
roommate is Mary (Mischa Barton), a shy, naive girl who goes by the
nickname of Mouse. For Mouse this is her first time ever at a boarding
school and she is initially confused by her roommates actions and is unable
to truly comprehend what is going on. Tory and Pollie are together in that
they are a couple even though Tory may not think of it that way. One day
Tory's sister Allison who often bursts in on them catches the two in bed
together. Disgusted by this Alison runs off with her friends. Tory is sure
that Allison will tell her parents and due to their religious nature they
would surely disown her. Tory begins to distance herself from Pollie who
doesn't understand why.
"Lost and Delirious" is a film that wasn't easy for me to review. I tried
for days to form cohesive thoughts after seeing it theatrically and at the
end of the day I just couldn't find the words to describe it. It's a piece
of art that stands on it's own and is best seen rather then described. The
film contains many important messages but at it's core it's about love and
the fact that it can't always overcome all obstacles. Sometimes
circumstances just get in the way and regardless of how hard one party
tries to over them it just doesn't always work out. It's tragic that two
people who obviously have feelings for each other can't find a way to be
together. Some people spend their whole lives searching for a person to
spend their lives with. The sexual orientation of the girls is really a
secondary factor as I feel love transcends all gender classifications. Love
is an abstract, a condition that takes an overwhelming hold on those it
touches. As a firm believer in the ideals of love, I hope that one day I
will form that strong a bond with another person.
The film also features some powerful acting led by Piper Perabo and Jessica
Pare. Perabo who is best known as Violet Sanford the singing coyote in
"Coyote Ugly" shows that while she was good in that film, it didn't even
begin to show off her acting range. This is a breakout role for the young
Perabo. As Pollie a girl who yearns to meet her birth mother and without
many people who truly care for her Perabo gives a compelling performance.
Her ability to take what could easily be considered a jelous character and
make us see the inner beauty and motivation is something I don't often see
in films. Pollie isn't jealous, it's that she needs Tory and the thought of
losing her would create another in repairable hole in her heart. Perabo
captures the heart and soul perfectly. Jessica Pare (Stardom) plays Tory.
Jessica takes the multi-leveled character and turns her into a real person
who is torn between two relationships that she treasures but can no longer
co-exist. Pare who was good in the small Canadian feature "Stardom"
continues to grow as an actress here. Pare's Tory is a layered, strong and
above all else a regular girl who faces problems that exist in real life.
Mischa Barton who played a dead girl in "The 6th Sense" is also quite good
as Mouse the films narrator. Although it's a smaller role then the others
Mischa brings an innocent, naive quality to Mouse.
"Lost and Delirious" is a romantic tragedy and is everything Hollywood
romantic pictures are not. Canadian director Lea Pool manages to craft a
masterpiece of human emotions in her first English language film. Based on
the novel "The Wives of Bath" by Susan Swan, this poignant drama will likely
evoke strong feelings in all who view it. The 100 minute running time seems
like mere moments.
It should also be noted that this film has been released as an unrated
feature. This is a postive thing as the MPAA would likely miss the true
meaning of the film and it's message and focus only on the mildly graphic
nature of the love scenes. While some viewers will find this material
offensive it is handled in a mature and adult fashion which shows that it's
earned it's place in the story and is not used for pure shock value.
"Lost and Delirious" is a film for the dreamers of the world who hope that
Hollywood will come to it's senses and once again release films with real
emotions. It's message is one of hope. "Lost and Delirious" is one of the
best motion pictures I've seen in a long time and is a sure fire bet for my
top 10 of 2001.
Movie Rating : 9/10 - Top 10 of 2001
The DVD
VIDEO: One of my major concerns when I see a film in the theater from a small
studio or distributor is how will it look on DVD. Everyone knows that while
some discs can look amazing, not all discs are created equal. Even the
largest studios occasionally put out less then stellar transfers on DVD.
When it comes to transfers uniformity isn't a word that I'd use to describe
them. So when I heard Seville was releasing "Lost and Delirious" in Canada.
I was a bit concerned as to what the resulting product would look like.
Once again my concerns were unfounded.
Despite the "This film has been formatted to fit your screen" notation on
the back cover "Lost and Delirious" is indeed presented in gorgeous 1.85:1
anamorphic widescreen. The transfer by Seville on this disc looks every bit
as good as some of the best Warner Brothers, Universal and Fox transfers of
late. Colors are warm during the outdoor scenes and subdued in the
interiors bringing a very natural palette to the picture. Sharpness is very
detailed and the black level seems dead on. As for imperfections I was hard
pressed to find many issues with this transfer. Throughout the 100 minute
film I counted no more then 5 minor dust marks. The film is free of edge
enhancement, pixelation and the many other elements that often plague
transfers. Their is one minor problem however as some of the flesh tones
seem a tad inaccurate appearing with a noticeable golden hue. This occurs
primarily during the outdoor scenes and may be related to the way to a
camera technique used. This is really more of a minor nitpick then a
problem and doesn't distract from the overall enjoyment of the film.
Seville pulls out a very strong transfer that is easily one of the best
I've seen of late.
Video Rating : 9/10
SOUND:More often then not when a smaller independent type feature like "Lost and
Delirious" is made and released the studios opt to scale back one major
aspect of the production. Nine out of ten times the audio mix is what
suffers resulting in only a 2.0 track instead of a full fledged 5.1 mix. So
when I heard that the Seville edition of "Lost and Delirious" would contain
a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix I was pleasantly surprised. Having seen this film
in the theater during it's brief Canadian run in the summer I remember
thinking that it was a pretty good mix for a drama.
Seville offers no shortage of audio options for this disc as it contains an
English DD 5.1 mix, an English 2.0 stereo mix, and a French 2.0 Stereo mix.
Obviously most viewers will be selecting the English 5.1 mix which is of
course the one I have chosen to focus on for this review. As mixes go for
emotional dramas this one is quite good with no real flaws to talk about.
The music including the phenomenal score by first time score composer Yves
Chamberland sets the emotional tone for the film and comes across
beautifully. Dialogue is clear and easy to understand and is never
overpowered. The outdoor scenes of which there are many contain nice
ambient sounds. Aside from the ambience and musical score there is very
little use of the rear channels but since this is a story and dialogue
driven film there isn't a real need. The LFE channel does get a little
action in the more tense moments but it's a really a not a factor. Those
of you going in expecting a knock your socks off mix will be disappointed
but for a drama where music and dialogue play the most important roles this
is an excellent mix making good use of the added channel space and fidelity
that a full on 5.1 mix offers. While it does remain primarily front focused
this is a truly great mix that really enhances the film.
Audio Rating : 9/10
EXTRAS:Sometimes when I see a movie and I get blown away I want the DVD to expand
on the film with commentaries, documentaries and the like. Then there are
other times when I'm content with allowing the movie to stand on it's own.
This is one of those times. Seville Pictures one of the studios involved
with the production of the film and the holder of Canadian home video
distribution rights have kept things very minimalistic on this disc. By
doing so they allow the feature film speak for itself. However since discs
without any special features are frowned upon in the market Seville has
added some bonus materials here. The bonus material is simple in nature and
length and consists of a "Behind the Scenes" featurette, a still gallery
and the film's theatrical trailer (Full Frame / Dolby 2.0).
The Behind the Scenes featurette contains all of the usual elements in film
clips, interviews and actual on set footage. It differs from the standard
HBO/Showtime type in that there is actually useful nuggets of information
contained within. Interviewed within are all 3 female leads (Jessica Pare,
Piper Perabo and Mischa Barton) as well as director Lea Pool. Pool has some
interesting insights that I would have liked to see expanded upon and it's
a shame the originally announced commentary could not have been included. I
will expand on this later in this section.
The theatrical trailer is included and is pretty self explanatory. I hadn't
seen the trailer for this film before and it was interesting to see how
they would make a trailer for this potential difficult to market film. The
trailer is unfortunately in full frame format with only a Dolby Digital 2.0
mix which for some reason is recorded louder then the feature. It's an
interesting trailer but it really doesn't do the film justice. Still it's
inclusion here is welcomed with open arms.
Rounding out the extras is a Still Gallery consisting of photographs that
can also be found on the "Lost and Delirious" website.
It should also be noted that the original press release had this disc
containing an audio commentary with director Lea Pool. Sadly this feature
was dropped from the disc due to Ms Pool's availability. Seville was
presented with two options regarding this situation they could either wait
until 2002 when Ms Pool would be able to sit down and discuss the film or
they could release the disc sans commentary. I think they made the right
decision in releasing the disc without the commentary. When it all comes
down to it, the movie and the audio/video quality of the disc far outweigh
the need for extra features and to delay the disc any number of months to
include a single audio commentary just doesn't make sense to me.
Extras Rating : 7.5/10
Final Thoughts:
It's with great pleasure that I recommend Lost and Delirious which will be
available on DVD 11/20 from Seville in Canada. The film is excellent and
this DVD does it justice. Top notch audio/video quality coupled with a fair
number of extras make this disc a worthwhile purchase. It should be stated
that Studio Home Entertainment will be releasing this title on 12/11 in the
US but their disc appears to contain no special features and it is unknown
if it will be anamorphic and 5.1. Fans of this film will want to go to the
extra trouble to import Seville's excellent Canadian release. It's rare
when a Canadian studio's disc beats it's American counterpart but with
companies like Seville and TVA International upping the ante the
marketplace is changing and it's not as cut and dry as it used to be. A
great disc for an amazing film. Seville's "Lost and Delirious" earns my
highest recommendation.
Disc Rating : 9/10
Reviewed by Mark McLeod November 14, 2001
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