The Good Girl (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	89:25
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Miguel Arteta
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Jennifer Aniston John C Reilly Tim Blake Nelson Jake Gyllenhaal
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Various

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/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	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The Good Girl, from director Miguel Arteta, is basically a 'small-town' film set in an unnamed town in Texas, about Justine Last (played by Jennifer Aniston). She's a 30-year old who works in a dead-end job in the town's department store and is unhappily married to Phil (John C Reilly), a somewhat simple, perpetually stoned, painter. She has obviously given thought to leaving her husband. However, given her innate moral values she has remained with him, putting up with the constant presence of his best friend, Bubba (!) (played by Tim Blake Nelson).

    One fine day she notices a young male co-worker of hers, Holden (Jake Gyllenhaal) and embarks on an affair with him. As their affair develops passionately, the couple are discovered by Bubba, who has always desired Justine, and from there the story develops...

    Jennifer Aniston, appearing almost without make-up and looking far less glamorous than in Friends, really shows that she can act in a serious, and reasonably weighty role. In fact, the acting by all four leads is really quite good and draws the viewer into feeling for all the characters in some way. The supporting cast, too, turn in decent performances.

Video

    The transfer is in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 which appears to match the original theatrical format. This transfer is 16x9 enhanced.

    Overall the picture is sharp, though not as sharp as others I've seen of its vintage.

    The shadow detail, or severe lack thereof, was really horrendous. Any indoor scenes would present an image in which there was a total lack of detail in the shadows. In fact, it was so bad that many times what should have been dark grey to black shadows were actually blue! Given the nature of the film, I really doubt this was an intentional effect by the director or cinematographer. Particular examples of the lack of shadow detail include the actors' hair disappearing into the background (which wasn't all that dark) at 5:39 and again at 13:20 where John C Reilly's face seems to be floating in the gloom as his hair has merged into the shadows! 27:52 and 47:12 are good examples of where the dark parts of the image appeared blue. Check out the blue hair in the latter example! This blueness combined an element of posterisation and even oversaturation.

    Grain was visible right throughout the film, and on occasions made me feel like I watching through an insect screen!  A particular example was at 3:28.

    Aside from the odd blueness in the shadows, the colour was typical of films of the genre. Neither too rich, nor washed out, just plain old normal colour.

    There were a few very minor negative and positive film artefacts present as small spots, and occasional scratches, none of which were disruptive. There was only a very minor trace of aliasing on the roof tiles of the store at the very beginning of the film. There was no obvious edge enhancement.

    The only subtitles provided are "English for the Hearing Impaired" which were fairly accurate, and well timed to the on-screen dialogue.

    This was a single layered disc and hence there was no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The only soundtrack present on this disc was an English Dolby Digital 5.1 one.

    Dialogue was clear and in sync with the actor's lip movements at all times.

    The music, credited to a large number of people, was mainly acoustic instruments, such as guitars, zithers, and banjos, perhaps to flavour the film with that Texas feel. It was pleasant, but not particularly memorable.

      The soundstage was predominantly biased towards the front speakers, which is understandable as this is a dialogue driven movie. The effects are well spread across the frontal plane, though later in the film the rears did chip in to provide a comfortable level of ambience and even some directional effects. Some examples include the in-store announcement which emanates from all speakers at 33:45, the thunder from the rear speakers at 34:30 and the rain at 34:58.

    The subwoofer piped in to support the occasional effect.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    This is a rental version of the DVD and offers no extras at all, unless you count 'scene selection'!

    Being a rental version, it might be unfair to point out the differences between this release and the R1 version. However, hopefully the inevitable R4 Collector's Edition will include at least some of what is present on the R1 version:

• Commentary by director and screenwriter
• Deleted scenes with commentary
• Gag reel
• Alternate ending montage
• 4:3 pan and scan version on one side of the double sided double layer disc.

    The Good Girl is a watchable film with a surprisingly good cast which makes it somehow realistic yet fanciful. While much of it is somewhat predictable, the darker turn towards the end is nevertheless a little surprising and does somehow further demonstrate the irony in the film's title.

    This transfer had something amiss in the shadow detail/contrast department, but was otherwise good. It is a rental release, so fans will have to wait for a Collector's Edition with the extras that the R1 release already offers.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall