Virginia (Blu-ray) (2010)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Trailer-x 6 for other Eagle releases
Rating
Year Of Production	2010
Running Time	110:54
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Dustin Lance Black
Studio Distributor	Eagle Entertainment	Starring	Jennifer Connelly Ed Harris Harrison Gilbertson Emma Roberts Amy Madigan
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Nick Urata

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Virginia commences with a scene at a suburban crime scene and then goes back a year to explain what happened. In a small Southern town, single mother with a mental disability Virginia (Jennifer Connelly) has struggled to raise her teenage son Emmett (Harrison Gilbertson) while, for two decades, carrying on an affair with the very married Mormon Sheriff Richard Tipton (Ed Harris) who is not averse to a bit of S&M. But Tipton is running as a candidate for State Senate and finding less time for Virginia so she pretends to be pregnant. This announcement does not go down well with Tipton and he pushes Virginia aside, so she stuffs clothing under her dress and tells everyone that she is pregnant and who the father is. To complicate matters further, Emmett and Tipton’s daughter Jessie (Emma Roberts) have fallen in love and Tipton is determined to keep them apart. Things come to a head on the October long weekend when the Governor comes to town to endorse Tipton’s candidacy.

     Virginia is the second feature from writer / director Dustin Lance Black who won a Best Screenplay Oscar for Milk (2008). Virginia was first shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010 but the film’s reception there was apparently not good and the film was recut and did not have a limited theatrical release until 2012. However some critics were still unimpressed and have called Virginia, among other things, depressing, uneven, off balance, unfocussed and mean spirited. But I have to disagree and say that while it has some faults Virginia is not that bad.

     Perhaps my biggest question is about the tone of Virginia. It could almost be a black comedy, or a satire with some biting comments about religion and morality, and some of the situations are off-kilter, such as a prayer before S&M or a farcical attempted bank robbery. However, Virginia is played absolutely straight by the four main leads as a drama. By and large Jennifer Connelly downplays her role, only occasionally indulging in some hysterics, while Ed Harris does give some dignity to an unlikeable character (apparently Liam Neeson was originally cast as Tipton and it would have been interesting to see what he would do with it) which prevents the film from veering into melodrama. Both young adults, Harrison Gilbertson and Emma Roberts, give natural performances but perhaps the most tragic and complex performance comes from Amy Madigan as Tipton’s naďve and longsuffering wife Roseanna.

     While Virginia is certainly uneven, it is by no means as hopeless or depressing as some have maintained. Dustin Lance Black has tried to do something a little different and a good cast, some off-kilter situations and a fudged but reasonable ending mean that Virginia is certainly interesting and well worth watching.

Video

     Virginia is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, and is 16x9 enhanced. The IMDb does not give the original ratio, but the film does not look cropped and all other Blu-ray and DVD releases are in this 1.78:1 ratio, so I suspect this is close to the original ratio.

     This is a very nice looking print, sharp and with a good depth of detail. Filmed with the Arri camera, Virginia has those glossy digital colours which look very good indeed. Blacks are exceptional, shadow detail fine. Skin tones sometimes have that slight digital yellowish tinge but are mostly natural, while brightness and contrast are consistent.

     I saw minor motion blur in one scene only; otherwise there are no other marks or artefacts.

     There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

     Audio is a choice of an English DTS-HD MA 5.1 or English Dolby Digital 5.1.

     Dialogue was mostly clear and easy to understand except for a couple of sentences from Harrison Gilbertson. This is a dialogue driven film without the need for loud effects in the rears, and even in the climax the gunshots are deliberately muted. The rears do produce a little music and ambient effects which is all that is needed. The sub-woofer was mostly silent.

     The original music by Nick Urata, which included some of his songs, was augmented by a range of pop and easy listening music, including songs from Blondie and Barry Manilow, as well as music by Chopin.

     I did not notice any lip synchronisation issues.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Trailers

     Trailers for Exploding Sun (1:45), Delete (2:07), Dracano (0:52), Marco and the Pirates (2:13), CAT.8 (1:55) and Eve of Destruction (1:43).

     There is no listed Blu-ray release of Virginia in either Region A US or Region B UK; the only Blu-ray listed is a Region B Danish release with a range of European subtitles but no extras. There is a Region 1 US DVD release that does include a 21 minute “making of” that is reported as “disposable”. For Blu-ray our release is the go.

     Virginia is certainly uneven but with a good cast including Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris it is by no means as hopeless or depressing as some have maintained. Virginia is indeed a little different but it does hold the interest and is well worth watching, especially for fans of Connelly and Harris.

     The video is very good, the audio does what is required. Some trailers for other films are the only extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall