Unforgettable (Blu-ray) (2017)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Audio Commentary-director Denise Di Novi Featurette-Reclaiming What’s Yours: Making Unforgettable (10:09) Deleted Scenes-1 Scene (2:06)
Rating
Year Of Production	2017
Running Time	100:08
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Denise Di Novi
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Rosario Dawson Katherine Heigl Geoff Stults Cheryl Ladd Isabella Kai Rice Sarah Burns
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Toby Chu

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 German Dolby Digital 5.1 Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired German Italian Danish Finnish Greek Icelandic Norwegian Swedish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     On-line magazine editor Julia Banks (Rosario Dawson) leaves behind her a past violent relationship to move to southern California to marry David Connover (Geoff Stults), a divorced man with a pre-teen daughter Lily (Isabella Kai Rice). However David’s ex-wife Tessa (Katherine Heigl) is not prepared to let David, or her daughter, go and sets out to destroy Julia and her relationship with David. Tessa turns up at the house unannounced, tries to undermine Julia with both David and Lily and steals Julia’s phone, using Julia’s personal details to create a Facebook page for Julia and to send messages, as Julia, to Michael (Simon Kassianides), the man with whom Julia had been in an abusive relationship. This is not going to end well.

     Unforgettable is director Denise Di Novi’s feature debut although she is an experienced producer with 44 credits in the IMDb including Edward Scissorhands (1990). Unfortunately, not only is the plot of Unforgettable all too familiar, the film brings nothing new to the story. From the beginning you know exactly where the film is going and it relies on clichés and stock characters and, when it has a choice, it takes the easy and familiar option.

     That the film works at all is due to the two leads, Rosario Dawson and Katherine Heigl, who both give it their best shot; they are opposites in every way, one dark, warm and earthy, the other a manipulative ice blonde but the two do make something of clichéd situations. The real issue is the script; for this type of plot to work one should have at least some sympathy for a woman who has lost her husband and her daughter to another woman, but here Unforgettable falls down. Tessa is all about control; she is manipulative and malicious and the script even adds an incident from her childhood to explain her extreme behaviour. There is no subtlety to her character, and thus no mystery in the film; to see what might have been one need look no further than the character of Tessa’s mother, played by Cheryl Ladd. In only a couple of interesting scenes she shows us the same controlling behaviour towards her daughter that Tessa shows towards Lily, but manages to add so much more sweet, hidden menace!

     Unforgettable has its moments as a thriller, and the performances are good, but the film never manages to rise above its stock plotting and adds nothing new to the genre. One thing is does reinforce though; never use a variety of your birthday as a PIN for your mobile phone!

Video

     Unforgettable is presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     There can be no complaints as the print looks as a newly produced film should look. Detail is strong, colours clean, bright and natural, without obvious manipulation. Blacks and shadow detail are great, skin tones natural, brightness and contrast consistent.

     I did not notice any artefacts or marks.

     English subtitles for the Hearing Impaired plus subtitles in a wide range of European languages are available.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

     Audio is a choice of English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English descriptive audio utilising a male voice, German and Italian dubs (all Dolby Digital 5.1). The audio commentary is Dolby Digital 2.0.

     Dialogue is always clear and easy to understand. The surrounds and rears are used for music plus appropriate effects such as the rain and thumps and breaking furniture and fixtures during the fight at the end. The subwoofer supported the music and the fight, which was all that was required.

     The score by Toby Chu was suitable but tended to signal scares, or potential scares.

     There are no lip synchronisation issues.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Reclaiming What’s Yours: Making Unforgettable (10:09)

     A superficial featurette using film and on-set footage plus short comments from director Denise Di Novi, writer Christina Hodson, producer Alison Greenspan and cast Rosario Dawson, Katherine Heigl, Geoff Stults and Cheryl Ladd. Topics covered include the plot, the cast, characters and the fight scene.

Commentary

     Director Denise Di Novi provides an interesting commentary talking about her inspirations, intentions in particular scenes, symbolism, aspects of the cast, locations, the production design, the score and the psychology behind certain plot points. There is a fair bit of “I love this . . .”, but this is one case where the commentary is rather more compelling than the film itself!

Deleted Scene (2:06)

     This deleted scene can be played with or without commentary by director Denise Di Novi. It is a scene between David and Julia, showing the closeness of their relationship which the director indicates was cut as it was redundant.

     This release is the same as the Region A US Blu-ray of Unforgettable, including the FBI antipiracy warning, but with some different audio and subtitle options.

     Unforgettable is rather forgettable (sorry, that comment was rather obvious, a bit like the film). There is no mystery; the audience knows who the good person is here and who should have our sympathy and while the film does have its moments of tension, and some good performances, there is never any doubt about where it is heading and what the result will be.

     The video and audio are very good. The extras are reasonable and the same as are available elsewhere.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall