Goddess (Blu-ray) (2013)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Theatrical Trailer-Theatrical Trailer (2:29)
Rating
Year Of Production	2013
Running Time	103:49
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Mark Lamprell
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Laura Michelle Kelly Ronan Keating Magda Szubanski Dustin Clare Hugo Johnstone-Burt Tamsin Carroll Corinne Grant Pia Miranda Natalie Tran Lucy Durack
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$39.95	Music	Bryony Marks Joanna Weinberg Jude Morris

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD High Resolution Audio 5.1 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Goddess is based on writer Joanna Weinberg's successful one-woman stage show Sink Songs. The film is co-written with writer/director Mark Lamprell and stars Laura Michelle Kelly, Ronan Keating, Magda Szubanski (in a role similar to Meryl Streep's in The Devil Wears Prada), Hugo Johnstone-Burt and Lucy Durack.

     Goddess was shot in Tasmania and around the CBD of Sydney in March and April, 2011. Laura Michelle Kelly took leave from her lead role in the theatrical show of Mary Poppins to shoot Goddess. Ronan Keating, known in Australia as a judge on the television show, The X Factor, has his first feature film role in Goddess.

     Elspeth Dickens (Laura Michelle Kelly), mother of twin 3-year olds Fred and Zac, struggles to cope with raising her sons in a rural Tasmanian town (the locality was shot in Stanley) while her husband James (Ronan Keating) is away tracking whales in the ocean between Tasmania and Antarctica. As James is away for weeks at a time, he installs a webcam in her kitchen to maintain communication. Unfortunately, Elspeth finds it hard to use Skype, yet somehow she manages to run a live blog where she performs her hilarious sink-songs, which make her a cyber-sensation! Elspeth is discovered by an agency in Sydney, where she meets media mogul Cassandra Wolfe (Magda Szubanski), who aims to make her the face of her laptop range. However, all is not as it seems, as Elspeth is forced to choose between fame and family, and in the process she almost loses it all.

     Goddess is directed by Mark Lamprell (who co-wrote Babe – Pig in the City). The musical soundtrack was overseen by Judy Morris (co-director of Happy Feet), the screenplay, as mentioned, was written by Mark Lamprell and Joanna Weinberg, and the director of photography is Damian Wyvill.

Video

     Goddess was shot digitally using Arri Alexa cameras and is presented in an aspect ratio of 2:40:1, in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     The film is sharp and contains good shadow detail, especially in the film's many 'early dawn' shots, which use natural light perfectly, and fine detail on close-up shots is excellent too.

     Colour is vibrant as most scenes are set in strong natural lighting. There are only a few sequences set in night-time.

     There are no film or video artefacts.

     Subtitles are available in English for the hard of hearing.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

     The original soundtrack is by Bryony Marks and Joanna Weinberg.

     The main audio track is a DTS-HD Master Audio English 5.1 track. A Descriptive Audio track is available in English for the hard of hearing in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, encoded at 256 kbps.

     The dialogue is clear and the audio is synchronised.

     The music is eclectic, with cabaret, country & western and jazz-influenced numbers, mainly sung by Laura Michelle Kelly.

     The surround channel mix contains good balance and discrete effects in the front and rear channels.

     The subwoofer is utilised for lower frequencies in the musical numbers mainly.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Theatrical Trailer (2:29)

    The only extra is the theatrical trailer. It is presented in an 1080p 1:85:1 video transfer.

    Goddess has only been released in Australia at the time of writing this review. It is coded for Region B.

     It's a shame that Goddess did not receive more marketing at the time of its theatrical release in March 2013 because I found it a brave take on the musical genre, with strong performances by the leads, Kelly and Keating.

     The cinematography is superb, as is the musical soundtrack, so do yourself a favour and check this feel-good romantic comedy out!

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall