Untamed Heart (1993)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	97:51
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Tony Bill
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Christian Slater Marisa Tomei Rosie Perez
Case	?
RPI	$31.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired German for the Hearing Impaired French Italian Spanish Dutch Swedish Norwegian Danish Finnish Turkish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

   With their newfound friendship, they both develop a deep attraction to each other, and Caroline discovers Adam's secret, which will impact both their lives. What follows is a slow but steady-paced telling of their growing love for each other, and how each makes the other happy beyond that which they could imagine. I must say that there are a few convenient story points that seem a little too contrived, and the dialogue does become rather laboured and overly sentimental at times (not quite cringe-worthy, but close). It must be said too, however, that the performances of Tomei and Slater are very good. I still believe that Slater is more suited to action roles, such as his role in Broken Arrow, and I will always remember Tomei as the loud but loyal wife in My Cousin Vinny (for which she won the 1992 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress), but both of them appear to have taken this story to heart and play their roles with obvious chemistry and conviction. It is a pity that the movie also stars Rosie Perez as Caroline's best friend. Perez must win the award for the most annoying voice in Hollywood.

    In short, Untamed Heart is a perhaps a love story that takes itself a little too seriously, and perhaps did not need to be so contrived. It attempts to tug on the heartstrings, but doesn't quite get there even though the lead performances are strong.

Video

    The sharpness level throughout the movie is quite soft, with most scenes displaying quite a blurry look. In addition to the low sharpness level, the transfer also displays some grain and has a very hazy look. It is similar in some ways to the transfers given to some Friends episodes that look as though a gauze mat has been placed over the screen, contributing to what looked like a small amount of low level noise. Black level and shadow detail was lacking in some areas, but overall was average.

    Colours seemed a little washed out, with skin tones seeming a little pale at times, but I guess this conveys the American winter well. The opening black and white sequence didn't seem quite right, displaying a slight brownish tinge instead of the expected strong blacks and whites. I am not sure if this was intended or is a problem with the transfer. However, all in all, colour is not too bad.

    I did not detect too many film artefacts with this transfer. Due to the soft nature of the transfer, aliasing is also absent. Edge enhancement is not a problem, but in many cases bright objects and objects against bright backgrounds displayed a halo effect, with the bright areas bleeding into the darker objects. Examples include the street lamps at 40:47 and snow at 51:55.

    A number of subtitles are provided. The English subtitles appeared to accurately represent the dialogue at all times.

    The disc is not RSDL-formatted and thus does not have a layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Dialogue is always clear with only a couple of instances that appeared to be ADR synchronisation problems.

    The music score is appropriate for this type of film, and is very mellow, soft, and depressing. It opens and closes with the Nature Boy theme song that now always reminds me of Moulin Rouge.

    Surround activity is limited, but that is to be expected for a dialogue-driven movie such as this. There were some instances of ambient activity that created a nice sound field, such as the intermittent rain and the people at the ice skating arena. The surrounds are also used sparingly to carry the score.

    I cannot recall the subwoofer being called into action during the movie.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Theatrical Trailer

    The trailer audio and video quality is very similar to that of the feature itself, and it is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with 16x9 enhancement.

    The video quality is average, being very soft and hazy.

    The audio is satisfactory for a film of this type.

    The token extra is nothing worth writing home about.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall