Crush (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio Menu Audio Theatrical Trailer Featurette Interviews-Cast & Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	107:30 (Case: 111)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (72:23)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	John McKay
Studio Distributor	Magna Home Entertainment	Starring	Andie Mac Dowell Imelda Staunton Anna Chancellor Kenny Doughty Bill Paterson
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$14.95	Music	Kevin Sargent

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes, in just about every scene
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, end credits over sunset

    I hate films that lead you to think it's a certain type of movie, and then turn out to be something completely different.

    Everything about Crush - its title, casting, location, blurb, opening scenes - led me to believe this was a light-hearted feel-good romantic comedy. Bzzzt! Wrong, wrong, wrong! By the end of the film I was shell shocked, and wondering what I stumbled into.

    I have to admire the courage it took to make a film like this, since I imagine it won't do very well with test audiences - and I can write with perfect 20-20 hindsight, since I know it did not do that well at the box office. I can't believe the producers believed in it enough to finish it - if I was financing it I would have become squeamish very early in the game and beg writer/director John McKay to alter the storyline to make it more palatable.

    Three female friends live in a small English village (that looks like it's somewhere in the Cotswolds). They are all turning 40, unlucky in love, and meet regularly to smoke, drink, eat caramels, and regale each other with their bad luck and disastrous "man story" of the week.

    Till one day Kate (Andie MacDowell), an expatriate American principal of the local school, attends a funeral and meets a dashing young organist called Jed (Kenny Doughty). It turns out that Jed was formerly a student of Kate, and before you know it they are groping each other against a tombstone in the graveyard next to the church.

    Kate's two friends - local GP Molly (Anna Chancellor) and policewoman Janine (Imelda Staunton) - disapprove of Kate's relationship with Jed due to the age difference. They do everything they can to break up the relationship, but against all reason the pair fall deeper and deeper in love and decide to get married.

    Finally Molly decides to seduce Jed to prove to Kate how fickle young men are, but this results in disastrous consequences for all involved. What will happen next?

    I found it very difficult to relate to the ending of the film, and in the end thoroughly disliked all the major characters. Too many "innocents" get hurt in this film, and I feel pity for them, particularly the poor Rev. Gerald (Bill Paterson) who seemed like a thoroughly nice person. Arguably this is a "female bonding" film - but I definitely wouldn't want to bond with these women. Hand me the caramels, I think I'll go sulk in a corner now.

Video

    We get a widescreen, 16x9 enhanced, transfer in the intended aspect ratio of 2.35:1, based on a 35mm film print shot using anamorphic lenses. Note: there is a slight black border around the frame, so it may appear to be slightly wider than 2.35:1 on your display - the actual measured aspect ratio was around 2.33:1

    The transfer is quite soft and rather blurry at times. Although contrast levels are generally okay, there are quite a few scenes (particularly in the outdoors) that are over-exposed, perhaps intentionally so. Although black levels are good, shadow detail is below average.

    Many of the scenes, and again particularly the outdoor ones, look rather yellowish. I noticed this in the featurette as well, and wonder whether it's a result of digital grading. It almost seems like the scenes were shot under grey skies, but the creative team wanted to portray a bright sunny image resulting in an overall yellowish tone and washed out images.

    Fortunately, grain was not visible, presumably due to the anamorphic lenses and also the softness of the transfer. I did not notice any artefacts, apart from occasional shimmering, such as a particularly bad example around 35:09-35:15. The film source is reasonably clean, apart from a few marks here and there.

    Unfortunately, there are no subtitle tracks, apart from some burned-in subtitles when the trio are visiting Paris.

    This is a single sided dual layered disc (RSDL). The layer change is very well placed in Chapter 12 at 72:23, during a natural screen pause on Jed in the hospital. It shouldn't be noticeable unless you are deliberately looking for it.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are two audio tracks on the disc: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448kb/s) and English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224kb/s). I listened primarily to the 5.1 audio track.

    The audio quality is quite decent, although dialogue clarity wasn't as good as I would have liked. Whether it was because the actors were mumbling some of their lines, or because of the accents, I had some difficulty understanding some of the low level dialogue in the film. Fortunately, I did not notice any instances of audio being out of sync.

    Surround speakers are not active all the time, but are used when the occasion calls for it, such as for background music (particularly of organ music), and also gun shots around 36:75 and the "whoosh" of a jet engine around 48:29. The subwoofer seems to be only lightly used. Given that this is mostly a dialogue focused film, this is probably the most that I could have hoped for.

    The original music score (composed by Kevin Sargent) is mostly a combination of lush and romantic orchestral music, plus light instrumental. I found it quite pleasing and emotionally touching in places. In addition, there are also various snippets of classical and pop music inserted into the film

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There's a reasonable number of extras, with the only notable missing ones being a commentary track and/or deleted scenes.

Menu

    The menus are 16x9 but static. There is background audio present in most of the menus.

Theatrical Trailer (1:34)

    This appears to be the US theatrical trailer, and is presented in 1.78:1 (16x9 enhanced) and Dolby Digital 2.0 (224kb/s). Interestingly, the trailer does not have the yellowish tone present in the transfer of the film.

Featurette (6:33)

    This is untitled, but appears to be a promotional featurette containing the usual cast & crew interview snippets, excerpts from the film, and behind the scenes footage. It is presented (surprisingly) in 1.78:1 (16x9 enhanced) and Dolby Digital 2.0 (224kb/s).

    Interviews include:

• Andie McDowell (Kate)
• John McKay (writer/director) - he looks a bit like Hugh Grant
• Anna Chancellor (Molly)
• Bill Paterson (Gerald)
• Kenny Doughty (Jed)
• Imelda Staunton (Janine)

Interviews-Cast & Crew

    This is a set of interview segments, presented in 1.78:1 (16x9 enhanced) and Dolby Digital 2.0 (224kb/s).

    Interviews include:

• Andie McDowell (Kate) (5:57)
  • The character of Kate and her friends
  • About Jed
  • On John McKay
  • The comedy of the film
  • The three women and their weekly meetings
  • Throwing herself into the role
• Imelda Staunton (Janine) (1:16)
  • On John McKay
  • The script
  • The film "has a bit of bite to it"
• Anna Chancellor (Molly) (3:20)
  • The character of Molly
  • The three way friendship
  • About Kate and Jed
  • The seduction of Jed
• Kenny Doughty (Jed) (1:51)
  • The character of Jed
  • First meeting with Kate
  • The character of Kate
• Bill Paterson (Gerald) (3:04)
  • Gerald is right for Kate
  • On John McKay
  • The relationship between Gerald and Kate
• John McKay (writer/director) (4:21)
  • A film about women
  • The story set-up
  • Jed declares love
  • About Imelda Staunton
  • About Anna Chancellor
  • About Andie MacDowell
  • The appeal of the film
• Lee Thomas (producer) (5:11)
  • The appeal of the film
  • The story set-up
  • The three women
  • Making a comedy/drama

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

• French and Spanish subtitle tracks
• bonus trailers

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:

• Cast & crew interviews

    I would rate both versions as substantially the same in terms of extras, although I suspect (judging from R1 reviews) that R1 has a much better video transfer.

    Crush is a tragic/comic drama about how the friendship between three women is strained when one of them falls in love in a much younger man.

     The video transfer quality is rather soft with an overall yellowish tone.

    The audio transfer quality is above average.

    Extras include a featurette and cast/crew interviews.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall