Broken English (2007)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy Drama	Theatrical Trailer-(2.16)
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	93:00
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Zoe R. Cassavetes
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Parker Posey Drea de Matteo Tim Guinee Gena Rowlands Peter Bogdanovich Roy Thinnes Michael Panes
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Scratch Massive

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/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	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

  It is a major coup when, as a first time feature director, you can cast Parker Posey, the "Queen of the Indies", in your movie. But when you are the daughter of Indie legend John Cassavetes your street cred precedes you. It also helps that you can cast another legend, Gena Rowlands, your mother, in a supporting role.

In Broken English writer/director Zoe Cassavetes has made an entertaining if uneven blend of drama and comedy that hopefully won't be her last foray into feature filmmaking.

Posey plays Nora Wilder, a customer manager at a boutique New York hotel. She is efficient at her job, smoothing over everyone's problems. Of course, Nora's life is nowhere near so smooth. She is unlucky in love, much to the chagrin of her mother Vivien Wilder-Mann (Gena Rowlands). In time honoured fashion Vivien wants to know why her daughter can't settle down and wonders why she didn't marry the successful Mike, the husband of her best friend Audrey (Drea de Matteo).

Nora has a couple of problems. She has been burnt before and is shy of new men. She also has a knack of choosing the wrong men. When a date with an actor ( Justin Theroux) goes to hell Nora fears the worst, until handsome Frenchman Julien (Melvil Poupaud) meets her at a party and works his Gallic charm on her.

Nora's second problem is anxiety and attacks of nerves means that she drinks to much, makes too many bad decisions and can wreck relationships much easier than making them. The emotional fragility of Nora is one of the highlights of the film that distinguishes it from any number of romantic comedy/dramas. But will her last chance at love (OK I am being dramatic now) with the handsome Frenchman become a long-term relationship?

The film has a strong supporting cast. Theroux has fun with a short but telling appearance and De Matteo is excellent as the married woman who has got her man then found out that maybe he wasn't worth getting. Rowlands doesn't get much screen time and her performance is a little one note but it is easy to imagine her playing Nora 30 years ago. Poupaud is a fairly recent entrant to English language cinema. His charm works well here but, if his appearance in 44 Inch Chest is anything to go by, it can also be damaging to his health!

The supports are good but this film belongs to Parker Posey. She is a great actress who has the most expressive face in Hollywood - a face that can register sorrow, joy and love in an instant. She gives everything to Nora including some scenes that make her ugly and unlikeable.

Broken English is definitely an indie film and there are some conventional plot turns which might unsettle those looking for proof of the unbroken Cassavetes line. It is perhaps a little mainstream for the arthouse crowd and a little dark for the date night brigade. Still, there is much to like in the film and fans of Posey will want to snap it up.

Video

  Broken English was shot on High Definition digital video. It was transferred to 35mm film for cinema projection at a 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

That ratio has been preserved for the DVD release. It is 16x9 enhanced.

Being shot on digital means that we get a clear, bright image. It is reasonably sharp. There is some digital noise about, particularly on troublesome night scenes, but not enough to be disturbing. Given the short length of the film there was no problem with compression despite the film being placed onto a single layered DVD5.

The colours are accurate and the flesh tones realistic.

There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
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Film Artefacts
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Audio

    Broken English carries an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack running at 224 Kb/s.

This is pretty much a chamber drama/ comedy so a 5.1 track is not mandatory. Still it would have been nice to get some higher fidelity of the sound.

The music is by Parisian DJ duo Scratch Massive and also features some other electronica tracks. I am not entirely sure that the music fitted the film, but I enjoyed it anyway. The film ends with the very good cover version of the Marianne Faithfull song, Broken English, by Scratch Massive. Audio sync appears fine.

The dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there were no technical problems with the sound.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Theatrical Trailer

The only extra is a Theatrical Trailer. Presented in a letterbox on a 4:3 frame it is poorly transferred and not worth the watch. A commentary with Posey and Cassavetes would have been really good.

   This film has been released in the US in Region 1. The Edition Details are:
• Higher Definition (films) - Broken English episode (27:52) • The Making of Broken English (15:38) • Deleted Scenes (16:34) • Ads for HDNet The soundtrack also includes an English (Dolby Digital 5.1) track.

For fans of the film the Region 1 seems the way to go.

    Broken English is a interesting, if somewhat unbalanced, drama with just enough comedy to make the relationship disappointments bearable for us and Nora. The DVD transfer is not bad although the lack of extras is a bit of a let down.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall