Breath (Blu-ray) (2017)

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General		Extras
Category	Coming-Of-Age	Featurette-Making Of Featurette-Behind The Scenes Interviews-Cast & Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	2017
Running Time	115:25
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Simon Baker
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Simon Baker Elizabeth Debicki Samson Coulter Ben Spence Richard Roxburgh
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	$29.95	Music	Harry Gregson-Williams

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Descriptive Audio 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	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Tim Winton is a well-known and successful Australian novelist who has seen a number of his stories turned into television or movie productions. The latest, based on his novel of the same name, is Breath. The rights to the novel were optioned by a Hollywood producer, Mark Johnson, who has produced many successful films including the Best Picture Oscar Winner, Rain Man. It has taken a while to come to the screen but this production from last year, was written and directed by one of its male stars, Simon Baker. Simon has been a successful actor for a number of years, probably best known globally for his role in long running US TV show, The Mentalist. He has won awards both for his acting and now for his directing for this film, from the Australian Director's Guild as Best Feature Film Director.

    The story is set in the far south of Western Australia, around the town of Denmark, in the 1970s. Two young boys, Pikelet (Samson Coulter) and Loonie (Ben Spence) are both around 14 as the movie commences. Pikelet is in a fairly normal family, living with his Dad (Richard Roxburgh) and Mum (Rachael Blake), who seem fairly happy together. Loonie on the other hand lives with his physically abusive Dad (Jacek Koman) and tends to spend a lot of his time at Pikelet's place. They both attend the local school and Loonie tends to be a thrill seeker at any opportunity, encouraging Pikelet to do risky things, like playing chicken with trucks on the highway. They both learn to surf, using cheap polystyrene boards. Eventually they do some odd jobs so that they can buy cheap proper surfboards and really start to learn about surfing. On one of their long trips from where they live to a surf beach they meet a local resident, Sando (Simon Baker) , an ex-professional surfer. Sando lives in a rundown hippy shack with his wife, Eva (Elizabeth Debicki) who is an injured freestyle skier, who has been trying to get her knee right for a few years. As the relationship between Sando and the boys develops he helps them to improve their surfing and introduces them to more difficult and dangerous waves and surfing areas. As this continues they both learn about fear and deal with it in different ways.

    This is a quality production based on an interesting story. It is essentially a coming-of-age story for both of the boys. The story focuses on how each of them deals with various situations, fear, risk and morality. The cinematography is exquisite, both land based by Marden Dean and the water cinematography by Rick Rifici. The quality cinematography is assisted by the natural, rugged beauty of Western Australia's southern coast. Another highlight is the wondeful score by Harry Gregson-Williams, composer of major productions like The Martian, The Equalizer and more. The cast are excellent and very natural including the two young novice actors playing the core roles. Simon Baker does good work both as director and actor.

    The story is told in a gentle way and does not involve big action scenes or even moments of high drama. For those considering watching this film with their young teenagers it is worth noting that despite the M rating, there are depictions of adults having sex with minors and sexual practices which some may find distasteful. This does not detract from the film but I personally am glad that I did not sit down to watch this film with my young teenagers. Others of course may disagree.

    A quality Australian production which is certainly worth your time.

Video

    The feature is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio in 1080p. It is encoded using AVC.

    This film looks good on Blu-ray (upscaled to 4K) with colours at the better end of the spectrum for SDR material, nice clarity and sharpness and detail and a generally blemish free presentation. I did notice some spots of motion based pixelization but they were not too obvious. The waves especially come up well on the transfer, with wonderful colour.

    There are subtitles available in English for the Hearing Impaired which are clear and easy to read.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    This disc contains an English soundtrack in DTS HD-MA 5.1 and a descriptive audio track in Dolby Digital 2.0. This is not a huge action film but the soundtrack provides lots of atmosphere and especially during ocean scenes lots of surround activity for the crashing waves.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand on most occasions.

    The surround speakers were well used for music and waves and the subwoofer did a good job supporting the waves and other incidental sounds.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu includes music and scenes.

Behind the Scenes (4:43)

Set Tour (4:22)

    Hosted by the production designer this is a tour of the house set and touches on props and cast.

Interviews (150:58)

    This release seems to be the only Blu-ray version available currently globally. A "Special Edition" is scheduled for January 2019 release in the US but seems to be the same specs as our current release. Buy local.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is very good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall