Little Fish (Warner) (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Menu Animation & Audio Audio Commentary-Rowan Woods (Director) Theatrical Trailer Featurette-Behind The Scenes Deleted Scenes-With Optional Commentary Notes-Soundtrack Listing
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	109:11 (Case: 114)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Rowan Woods
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Cate Blanchett Sam Neill Hugo Weaving Martin Henderson Noni Hazlehurst Joel Tobeck Lisa McCune Susie Porter
Case	?
RPI	$34.95	Music	Nathan Larson

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary 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	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    I can remember many years back, sitting in a dark Melbourne cinema at the conclusion of a film and thinking to myself, "wow - I can't wait to see this guy's next film". The film was The Boys (1998) and the guy was this film's director, Rowan Woods. The Boys was Woods' feature film debut as a director and together with a very talented cast and crew, he created one for the best Australian dramas of the nineties. Strangely, it would be some seven years before we would get the opportunity to see his next feature film, Little Fish.

    Apart from working as the Second Unit Director on Chopper in 2000, Woods worked mainly in television during those seven years. He has directing credits on episodes of Farscape and Fireflies, to name just a couple.

    It is interesting that the writer of Little Fish also has a solid background in television and as a consequence, the quality of the screenplay for Little Fish is certainly no fluke. Jacqueline Perske has very impressive credits as a writer, including the television series The Secret Life Of Us and Love My Way. In Little Fish , Perske has written an intelligent and provocative screenplay that challenges the audience by patiently revealing character and plot detail. In fact, I need to be very coy in my synopsis of this film, as to not spoil the many subtle revelations that make Little Fish such a pleasure to watch.

    The ensemble cast is simply first class. Cate Blanchett  plays Tracy Heart, a recovering heroin addict, living in the western Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, also known as Little Saigon. Tracey has her life back on track and has been clean for four years, although the temptation to use again is ever present. Tracey has a steady job, managing a video store. Her dream and ambition is to buy into the business and expand it into the realms of internet gaming. Her efforts to secure a loan in order to achieve this goal are met with constant disappointment.

    Watching with loving intentions over Tracy's welfare is devoted mum, Janelle (Noni Hazlehurst). She has endured the heartbreak of Tracy's addiction and also the rehabilitation of her larrikin son, Ray (Martin Henderson), after a serious car accident years earlier. Janelle is fiercely protective of her children and won't take a backward step in keeping them on the straight and narrow. The suspicious return of Tracy's former boyfriend, Jonny (Dustin Nguyen), after five years living in Vancouver intensifies Janelle's protective streak as old and deep emotional wounds are re-opened.

    More sinister developments revolve around a former rugby league star, Lionel Dawson (Hugo Weaving) and local crime boss, Brad "The Jockey" Thompson (Sam Neill). Ray and Jonny foolishly become involved in shady drug dealings and draw in a reluctant Tracy, who is desperate to escape the shackles of her present life and get the necessary collateral needed to finally realise her ambitions.

    Little Fish picked up thirteen AFI nominations in 2005 and won five awards, including awards for Cate Blanchett, Noni Hazlehurst and Hugo Weaving. Noni Hazlehurst's decision to leave the steady employment of her long-term television role and return to film has certainly been vindicated. Noni's performance in Little Fish  is undoubtedly on par with her work in Monkey Grip (1982) and is testament to her abilities as an actress. And although Cate Blanchett again confirms her status as an A list actress, it is Hugo Weaving who steals the film. His performance as Lionel Dawson is flawless and is arguably his best work on film - to date.

    Footnote: The opening of Little Fish does have much in common with Woods' previous film, The Boys . If you get an opportunity to view both films, compare the opening titles of each film and I'm sure you will notice distinct similarities both in the music and in the style of the titles.

Video

    The video transfer for Little Fish is excellent.

    The film is presented in the correct aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer displays excellent sharpness and clarity generally, with the obvious exceptions being the occasional soft focus close up effects used in the film. The use of lenses is discussed in the audio commentary, which some people may find interesting. Grain was occasionally evident, but overall blacks were deep and clean. Shadow detail was also excellent.

    Colours appeared perfectly natural and beautifully balanced.

    There were no MPEG artefacts in this transfer and no obvious film-to-video artefacts were noticed. As you would expect from a recent film, film artefacts were not an issue.

    Unfortunately, there are no subtitles available on this DVD.

    This is a single sided, dual layered disc. The layer change is very well placed at 63:02 . Although the change occurs mid-scene, thankfully it was not easily detected.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio transfer provides outstanding enhancement for this drama, without overkill.

    There are three separate audio tracks on this DVD; English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) and English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s). All these tracks are very impressive.

    There were no adverse issues with dialogue quality and audio sync appeared to be consistently spot on throughout.

    The original score for Little Fish is credited to Nathan Larson .His score provides enhancement to the general atmosphere of the film and is quite haunting. There is also music from other artists used in the film, including a children's choir version of the Cold Chisel song Flame Trees.

    The surround channels were superbly used to enhance the entire film in a subtle manner. Scenes in public places such as market places and city streets spread brilliant ambient sound over all channels to create a very realistic experience. The film's music also benefited from this excellent mix, spread over the surround channels.

    The subwoofer was kept quite busy, adding significant kick to music and to the general sound design.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    The selection of extras is interesting and highly relevant to the film.

Menu

   The menus are 16x9 enhanced and feature imaginative animation together with looped music and dialogue samples from the film.

Audio Commentary - Rowan Woods (Director )

    Rowan Woods is proud and passionate about this film, which is clearly evident in his commentary. He covers various aspects relating to the making of the film and provides considerable insight into these aspects. I also found his analysis of certain scenes very interesting. This was certainly one of the better audio commentaries I've heard in recent times and it complements the other extras very well.

Featurette - Behind The Scenes

    Categorized into four separate topics, these are brief glimpses into the making of Little Fish. Interviews with cast and crew members are incorporated with scenes from the film and some behind the scenes footage. Each topic can be selected individually, or select the "play all" function for continuous play of all topics. Those interviewed include Rowan Woods, Jacqueline Perske, Cate Blanchett, Noni Hazlehurst, Sam Neil, Hugo Weaving and Martin Henderson.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall