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In Short: Awful attempt at noir gets a basic Warner Brothers disc. The Movie: 
It may be a bit of a simple statement, but I wanted to say goodbye to "Goodbye, Lover" as soon as possible. A painfully basic attempt at making some sort of noir comedy/drama, "Goodbye, Lover" is instead simply a mess; an overplotted and silly thriller that contains not a single interesting character nor any dialogue that I found the least bit entertaining. The characters that populate this film are either terribly dull or foolish. In other words, one does not wonder why this film was delayed for ages as it sat on a shelf somewhere deep inside Warner Brothers.We are introduced to the main characters in the film: Peggy Blaine(Mary Louise Parker), a PR executive named Ben(Don Johnson), a real estate agent named Sandra(Patricia Arquette) as well as other characters played by Dermot Mulroney and Ellen Degeneres. All of the above flirt, fool around with, track down, or interact with each other in varying ways and combinations. Sandra is married to Jake(Mulroney), but she's having an affair with Ben. The usual double crosses and twists lie in wait, but the problem is that the film spins off in so many directions(few of which are of any interest) that it becomes hard to care at all about already unsympathetic characters. Too many characters populate this sleazy world, and the majority that we meet during this film are painfully underwritten. We already don't care for these people, so what reason do we have to follow them through painfully predictable and goofy situations? If this was really meant to be a dark comedy, then it would have been nice if it was actually funny. The few attempts at humor fall flat throughout, only adding to the already slow pacing of this flick. The sort of "colorful" characters and situations aren't the least bit entertaining, and mainly, the movie becomes too obnoxious and quite irritating. To put it simply, the movie stayed on the shelf at Warner for about a year; why they didn't just send it right to video is anyone's guess. How this awful screenplay took three writers to come up with, I'll never know. I do know one thing, though: "Goodbye, Lover" stinks. Not recommended. The DVD VIDEO: Warner Brothers has provided a fairly good anamorphic transfer for "Goodbye, Lover" in its 2.35:1 original aspect ratio. There is also a pan/scan edition of the film included on this DVD. Images are consistently clear, but for a good portion of the film, images are a little softer than I would have liked to have seen them. Colors are still natural and vibrant, and the outdoor scenes in the California sunshine look quite pleasing. Flesh tones are fair; sometimes they do look slightly unnatural. There are a few little flaws; a trace of shimmering here and there, a little scratch or two. Some of the darker scenes looked a little hazy, in my opinion. The movie itself is so poor that most viewers won't likely get too far into this disc, though. This is certainly a watchable image, but it's not as impressive as many past titles that Warner Brothers has offered on DVD. SOUND: "Goodbye, Lover" is mainly dialogue-driven. The score does have a nice presence and clarity, but again, it's mostly dialogue here, and the dialogue sounds alright; sometimes I felt it wasn't that easily heard. Not a real impressive soundtrack, it just gets the job done. MENUS: Basic, non-animated main menus based around the cover art. Music does play in the background of the main menu, which is a nice touch. EXTRAS:: The trailer(which is actually better than the film) and some production notes and cast bios. Final Thoughts: An awful movie and not a terribly impressive DVD, either.  The Film: 60/D = (300/500 possible points) Video: 87/B = (348/400 possible points) Audio: 85/B = (340/400 possible points) Extras: 70/C = (210/300 possible points) Menus: 70/C = (140/200 possible points) Value: 80/B = (240/300 possible points) TOTAL POINTS:1578/2100 Average:74%/C |