The Dark Room (1999)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	147:22
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (73:10)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Graham Theakston
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Dervla Kirwan James Wilby Paul Freeman Nicholas Gecks
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	Box	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Minette Walters is one of the most popular modern psychological thriller writers in the world. Since 1992 she has had 12 books published and so far 5 of them have been made into telemovies for the BBC. All five of the telemovies have been released here locally as part of a Minette Walters box set by Roadshow. I decided to watch and review them in the order they were made rather than the order the books were published. This book was published in 1995 and the movie was first shown in 1999, the most recent production in this set.

    This is yet another excellent psychological thriller from the pen of Minette Walters. The plot this time involves a young woman who is estranged from her family. Her name is Jane 'Jinx' Kingsley (Dervla Kirwan) and as the story begins she is brought into a hospital after an horrific car crash which has resulted in life threatening injuries. She has very little memory of the crash and as she is treated by Dr Alan Protheroe (James Wilby) it becomes obvious that her memory is missing about 10 days. It seems that the crash was an attempted suicide following her fiancé, Leo Wallader, leaving her for her lifelong best friend Meg Harris. Shortly after the crash, Leo & Meg's corpses are found, brutally murdered. Suspicion falls on Jinx as the police investigate. Other important characters in the story include:

• Adam Kingsley - Jinx's father, a rich businessman who is used to getting his own way.
• Miles Kingsley - Jinx's lowlife brother who is involved in his father's business.
• Andrew Greenhall - Adam Kingsley's devious lawyer.
• Reverend Simon Harris - Meg's brother who is a long time friend of Jinx.
• DI Arthur Maddox - The leader of the case team. He is an unreconstructed sexist and homophobic pig.
• DS Susie Blake - A new addition to Maddox's team.

    Once again this is a strong story complemented by some quality acting. This is a story which will keep you guessing right to the end. As with many Minette Walters stories none of the characters are obviously good or completely bad, making moral decisions hard for the viewer. It is presented in two parts as it was shown on television.

    Recommended.

Video

    The video quality is good.

    The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which I would guess is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was quite sharp and clear but slightly less so than The Echo. Shadow detail is reasonable. I did not notice any low level noise.

    The colour was very good, quite vibrant and well saturated. There was some minor colour bleeding from light colours.

    In the artefacts department there was some aliasing here and there such as on Venetians at 52:09 and I noticed one spot of tape tracking error at 67:40.

    There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were clear and easy to read but were somewhat summarised from the spoken word.

    The layer change occurs at 73:10 which is the end of the first part. It was not noticeable.
    

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is good.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was generally clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The score of this film by Colin Towns is quite good featuring moody orchestral music.

    The surround speakers were not used.

     The subwoofer was not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    None.

Menu

    The menu included music, and the ability to select parts, scenes and subtitles.

     This disc is available in the same box set format in Region 2 and is not available in Region 1. The local product wins.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is good.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall