Carnage (Blu-ray) (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Interviews-Cast & Crew-50 minutes Featurette-Behind The Scenes Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	79:37
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Roman Polanski
Studio Distributor	SBS Productions Universal Sony	Starring	Jodie Foster Kate Winslet Christoph Waltz John C. Reilly Elvis Polanski Eliot Berger Joseph Rezwin Nathan Rippy
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Alexandre Desplat

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.0 Japanese DTS HD Master Audio 5.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired Japanese	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Roman Polanski is one of the most famous (or possibly infamous) names in directorial circles. He has received multiple Oscar nominations for his directing including one win for The Pianist but has also been eluding the US justice system for many years after being convicted of statutory rape of a 13 year old. His latest directorial effort has just been released on Blu-ray and DVD in this country, Carnage. The film is based on a French play, The God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza. The style of the film is very much like a one act play, it is confined to a small apartment and plays out in real time. It is essentially a comedy, however, quite a dark one.

     The film is set in New York but was shot 20 minutes outside of Paris and covers a meeting between two sets of parents, The Longstreets & The Cowans. They have been brought together due to incident which involved their two young boys, where Zachary Cowan hit Ethan Longstreet in the face with a stick injuring him badly. No-one is denying the facts of the case but they have come together to discuss it on the instigation of Penelope Longstreet (Jodie Foster) who believes in justice and decency. She is a writer and works in a bookshop. Her husband, Michael (John C. Reilly) sells bathroom fittings and kitchen equipment and tries to keep everyone on an even keel in the discussion. The Cowans are Alan (Christoph Waltz) a high flying, rude and fairly unscrupulous lawyer and Nancy (Kate Winslet) who is an investment broker but is also fairly highly strung. They all start out trying to be conciliatory and discussing how to get the boys to reconcile but soon the conversation turns darker as the participants reveal their true feelings about the situation, each other and their spouses.

     As I mentioned above this is very much like a filmed play and will therefore not appeal to all audiences. It is very well acted by the cast of Academy Award winners and nominees who play off each other very well. It is funny, disturbing and although overall not realistic, parts of the film will certainly strike home to parents as situations they have been in or thoughts they have had but possibly not verbalised. It is a comedy about manners and how a situation might cause people to lose them or possibly they didn't really have them to being with. There is some great dialogue and unexpected moments which create an entertaining and thought provoking experience. It has the feel of a French farce style of film although is more acerbic than those usually are.

     Recommended for fans of thoughtful, dialogue based dramatic comedies.

Video

     The video quality is excellent.

     The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio. It is 1080p encoded using AVC.

     The picture is extremely sharp and clear throughout. I am sure the female actresses might have preferred a softer transfer. Colour is excellent.

     The only artefact is some very minor shimmer.

     There are subtitles available in English, English for the Hearing Impaired and Japanese.

    There are no obvious layer changes during playback.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio quality is excellent but the style of film does not overwork your home theatre.

     This disc contains two soundtrack options, English DTS-HD MA 5.0 plus the same in Japanese. There is no subwoofer channel but it would not have had anything to do if there was one anyway.

     Dialogue very clear and easy to understand throughout.

     The music by one of my favourite film composers Alexandre Desplat is excellent but really only plays over the opening and closing credits.

     The surround speakers are used for atmosphere and some directionality in voices but are not overly noticeable.

     The subwoofer was not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     A good selection of extras.

Menu

     The menu included music and motion plus allowing for scene selection.

Actors Notes (10:38)

     Basically an EPK style extra however better than most. This is a set of interview snippets from the cast members where they discuss the story, the characters, how they got involved, the play and the approach to shooting.

An Evening with John C Reilly & Christoph Waltz (38:03)

     A panel discussion with a host and the two actors. This is engaging and amusing. The actors discuss a number of elements of the production including how they got involved, working with the director, the shooting approach, the extensive rehearsals, the set and then take questions from the audience. Well worth a watch.

On the Red Carpet (3:30)

     A film festival red carpet featurette which includes small press interviews about the film with the cast and producer amongst others.

Trailer (2:20)

     Theatrical Trailer.

    The Blu-ray seems to be the same globally.

     An interesting dark comedy about human relationships from Roman Polanski.

     The video quality is excellent.

     The audio quality is excellent for what it needs to do.

     The extras are quite good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall