Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2003) |
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Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2003) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Comedy |
Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Listing-Cast & Crew Audio Commentary Audio Commentary-Callie Khouri & Ashley Judd Featurette-Unlocking The Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood Music Video-Sitting In The Window Of My Room-Alison Krauss Featurette-Necie; Teensy; Caro; Vivi Featurette-Ya-yas Featurette-Sidda Lee Featurette-Southern Chat Featurette-Louisiana Life Gallery-Photo Deleted Scenes Theatrical Trailer |
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| Year Of Production | 2003 | ||
| Running Time | 111:48 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (59:24) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4,5 | Directed By | Callie Khouri |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Warner Home Video |
Starring |
Sandra Bullock Ellen Burstyn Fionnula Flanagan James Garner Ashley Judd Shirley Knight Angus MacFadyen Maggie Smith |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip | ||
| RPI | $34.95 | Music | T Bone Burnett |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0  (192Kb/s)English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English Italian Hebrew English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired |
Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes, sparks | ||
If you want analogies then this film is a cross between The Joy Luck Club and Fried Green Tomatoes, with possibly a bit of Steel Magnolias thrown in for good measure. Oh, and did I mention The Making of an American Quilt? This film is a celebration of female friendship and mother-daughter relationships.
By now, I suspect you've lost all interest if you are of the male persuasion - that is, if you even bothered clicking on this review in the first place. For the rest of us, stay tuned as we go into more detail ...
Many many moons ago, four young friends decided to cement their friendship by participating in an initiation ritual of their own devising, and thus started the "Ya-Ya Sisterhood", creating a bond that would sustain them for the rest of their lives.
One of their daughters, Siddalee Walker (Sandra Bullock) - nicknamed 'Sidda' - eventually becomes a young and promising playwright. During rehearsals for her play on Broadway, she is interviewed by a Time magazine journalist and reminisces about her relationship with her mother, Viviane Abbott Walker (Ellen Burstyn) - nicknamed 'Vivi'.
Bad move. Doesn't she know that her words will be taken out of context and everything she says will be twisted to cause maximum hurt to her poor mother?
Pretty soon, mother and daughter are locked into an escalating war conducted via courier between New York and Louisiana. Mother sends pictures with daughter's face cut out. Daughter rips parents' tickets to opening night of the play. Mother disowns daughter and strikes her from her will. Daughter announces marriage to long time boyfriend Connor McGill (Angus MacFadyen) and sends out wedding invitation to mother - but cuts out the location, date and time.
Enter the Ya-Ya Sisterhood to try and defuse the missile crisis. Teensy (Fionnula Flanagan), Caro (Maggie Smith) and Necie (Shirley Knight) take the drastic step of kidnapping Sidda (by spiking her drink whilst taking her out for dinner) to Sisterhood HQ back in Louisiana where Sidda will get indoctrinated ... err, educated on the history of the Sisterhood so that she can understand why her mother behaves the way she does. The premise is that "to understand is to forgive": if Sidda learns about her mother's dark and troubled past it might help Sidda deal with memories of her own turbulent and sometimes painful childhood.
We (the viewers) are then taken along a journey of flashbacks featuring younger versions of the friends and their adventures - attending the premiere of Gone With The Wind, getting arrested during a hot and humid summer night, falling in love, losing a loved one, and so on.
The ending is fairly obvious: there will be some sort of revelation of some deep, dark secret that will magically explain all and facilitate understanding and forgiveness. However, I must admit, I was somewhat disappointed that the revelation in this case was somewhat underwhelming.
I am also unimpressed by the film's focus on the mother-daughter relationship between Vivi and Sidda and the life and times of the younger version of Vivi (Ashley Judd) in particular. I would have liked to see a more balanced story focusing on each of the members of the sisterhood. As it is, the other members are caricatures who act as a Greek chorus - we certainly don't get a chance to empathise with them or understand the journeys they went through.
I've been told the books by Rebecca Wells are worth reading - the film is based on Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Little Altars Everywhere. I might have to try them, because this film could have been great but left me wanting. I guess two novels are very hard to condense into a single film.
This is an excellent 2.35:1 16x9 enhanced transfer, based on a 35mm film print shot with anamorphic lenses for an intended aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
As would be expected for a recent release film such as this, the transfer is pretty much perfect. Detail levels are high, and colour saturation seems to be "spot on" - colours look a little bit subdued but I suspect this is intentional and the transfer is simply capturing the look of the print.
The only video artefact I noticed was occasional shimmering, particularly during vertical pans, such as around 47:34-47:38.
The film print also looks extremely good, with only very minor grain noticeable. Edge enhancement has been applied, but has been kept to a minimum, as I can occasionally see minor ringing.
I did not notice any compression artefacts whatsoever.
There are several subtitle tracks present: English, Italian, Hebrew, English for the Hearing Impaired, and Italian for the Hearing Impaired. The major difference between the English subtitle tracks is that the latter has dialogue attribution and the occasional transcription of non-dialogue events. I would have liked to have seen transcriptions of song lyrics. Accuracy is about average. The subtitle simplifies some of the more "colourful" aspects of the dialogue which is a pity.
This is a single sided dual layered disc (RSDL). The layer change occurs at 59:24 during a scene change and is not disruptive.
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There are a number of audio tracks on this disc: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s), Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s), English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded (192Kb/s), and English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded (192Kb/s). I listened to the English audio tracks.
The audio track was pleasant to listen to, and showed no obvious faults. Dialogue was clear and easy to understand, and there were no audio synchronization issues.
I did not expect this to be anything other than a dialogue focused film, with a front centred audio presentation, and my expectations were met. Panning of Foley effects was minimal and the surround speakers were mostly used for background music ambience.
However, I was still a bit disappointed that opportunities to use the surround channels more effectively were mostly wasted. A prime example was the plane flying scene around 91:15-91:25 where the sound of the plane engines could have been panned across to the rear channels or even mixed immersively around the soundstage. Instead, all I heard was a half-hearted attempt to pan the sound to the front left channel.
The subwoofer decided to have a siesta during the film as I could detect only occasional murmurs.
The background music mostly consists of Cajun and other Southern inspired music, composed by someone who calls himself T. Bone Burnett.
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There are a reasonable number of extras, and they are even subtitled in various languages, plus the authoring of the menu system is imaginative. All in all, prospective purchasers should be pleased.
The main menu is 16x9 enhanced and includes a menu introduction, animation and background audio.
This just consists of two stills providing a listing of cast & crew.
This is a filmmakers' commentary, featuring director Callie Khouri, producers Bonnie Bruckheimer and Hunt Lowry, executive producer Lisa Stewart, editor Andrew Marcus, and composer T. Bone Burnett. They seem to have been recorded together whilst watching the film, as they ask each other questions and respond to events on the screen. Topics covered include casting, how certain scenes were shot, creative decisions, continuity goofs, locations, and of course background music.
Despite the number of contributors, there are long moments when no one talks. Also, the contributions are somewhat uneven, and often I found it hard to distinguish who was saying what. Callie and one of the producers do most of the talking. T. Bone seems to hardly get more than a few words in.
It's a lot easier to pick out who is saying what, because the voices are more distinctive (and there are less of them). More importantly, Ashley comes from the left speaker and Callie is positioned on the right.
This is also a "real time" commentary as both characters are commenting on events on the screen and responding to each other. Some of the specific comments duplicate those made on the other commentary track (particularly Callie's comments) but in general this is a more personal, chatty commentary, with more insights into the relationship between the cast and crew, and comparisons to the book. I knew that the book has been simplified for the film, but I didn't realise how extensive the "adaptation" was - some of the scenes and plot elements are original, or heavily modified from similar ones in the book.
This is a short promotional featurette that provides a brief synopsis of the film including film excerpts. It also includes behind the scenes footage and interviews with
The featurette is presented in full frame and Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s). Film excerpts are letterboxed to 1.85:1.
This is presented in 1.85:1 letterboxed (no 16x9 enhancement) and Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s). It features Alison Krauss singing on a barge on the river with some musicians plus some excerpts from the film.
At first I thought this was a collection of stills but it actually leads to a sub-menu of mini-featurettes. There is an introductory video 1:32 in duration which "flicks" through the pages of the scrapbook. Then we are presented with a menu where we can get mini-featurettes on the members of the Sisterhood:
Each featurette contains mini-interviews with the various actresses who play the character (at various ages) plus excerpts from the film and behind the scenes footage.
There are also additional featurettes (also containing interview segments, behind the scenes footage and excerpts from the film) accessed as tabs on the right hand side of the menu which then lead to "pages" in the scrapbook.
All featurettes are presented in full frame and Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s). Film excerpts are letterboxed to 1.85:1.
These are presented in 2.35:1 letterboxed (no 16x9 enhancement) and Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s). The audio is fairly indistinct, so it is just as well that subtitles are available. The additional scenes include:
This is presented in 1.78:1 (16x9 enhanced) and Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded (192Kb/s).
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;
The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;
There is also a Pan & Scan version available in Region 1. The features seem to be similar across the regions, so I would declare this a draw.
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood has all the right ingredients for a good film: a good storyline based on two books by best-selling author Rebecca Wells, and a great cast and crew. Unfortunately, it manages to disappoint.
The video transfer quality is good.
The audio transfer quality is also good but misses opportunities to exercise the surround channels.
Extras are quite extensive.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Panasonic DVD-RP82, using Component output |
| Display | Sony VPL-VW11HT LCD Projector, ScreenTechnics 16x9 matte white screen (254cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
| Amplification | Denon AVC-A1SE (upgraded) |
| Speakers | Front and surrounds: B&W CDM7NT, front centre: B&W CDMCNT, surround backs: B&W DM601S2, subwoofer: B&W ASW2500 |