Perfect Sense (Blu-ray) (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Making Of Interviews-Cast & Crew Featurette-Behind The Scenes
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	92:10
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	David Mackenzie
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Ewan McGregor Eva Green Connie Nielsen Stephen Dillane Ewen Bremner Denis Lawson
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Max Richter

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Linear PCM 48/16 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Hmmmm, this is a hard film to write about. It is all at once interesting, bleak, romantic, apocalyptic, meaningful, annoying, fascinating and hard to completely understand. It is certainly not for those who like their films straight forward and well explained, but having said that it is hardly the weirdest film I have ever seen either. In essence this film is about the importance of love to human beings and whilst it is a romance it is not a very conventional one.

    The film is set in modern day Glasgow during a global pandemic in which people all over the globe are losing their senses one by one. The disease starts with a feeling of overhwelimng grief followed by people losing their sense of smell. This is followed by other senses as the film progresses. As this starts there is a chance meeting between a chef, Michael (Ewen McGregor) and an epidemiologist researching the disease, Susan (Eva Green). They are both difficult people, with very human flaws and their relationship is a long way from fairytale romance. Despite this, as the pandemic develops and their own senses start to go they find themselves more and more in love with each other, despite their flaws making it harder.

    This film is firmly arthouse in nature and certainly not for everyone. Its tone is low key, melancholic and bleak despite the romance. Some parts of the film really work as a very different way to tell a story about love, aided by the atmospheric music and the interesting premise. Other parts of the film were quite jarring, such as a scene involving eating animal carcasses and dead fish and a scene where Michael abuses Susan, seemingly for no reason. The ending is certainly thought provoking and leaves you thinking about it for some days afterwards. Generally speaking the film is well made and interesting to watch although one particular technique of mounting a camera on the bicycle Michael is riding is pointless and very annoying.

    I can only recomend this film for people who enjoy arthouse cinema and are looking for something different. If you like your movies to be upbeat, this is not for you.

Video

    The video quality is disappointing for Blu-ray.

    The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio. It is 1080p encoded using AVC. The source is from HD Video which may account for some of the problems.

    The picture was quite clear and sharp throughout.The shadow detail was poor for Blu-ray.

    The colour was quite good, however, the bleak setting of the film did not require a lot of vivid colour reproduction.

    This transfer is really let down by artefacts with some scenes such as at 55:30 and 64:20 showing significant background noise in the picture like I haven't seen on Blu-ray before. There was also grain in other scenes plus some aliasing/shimmering on objects. It is also obviously taken from an interlaced source as the blur during motion and camera movement was quite pronounced at times. All in all, this is not up to standard for Blu-ray.

    There are no subtitles which would have been really useful considering how hard to decipher some of the dialogue was.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is good but has some problems.

    This disc contains an English soundtrack in PCM 5.1 48/16.

    Dialogue was hard to make out at times due to accents and subtitles would have been an excellent addition.

    The music by Max Richter is the aural highlight. It is sparse and atmospheric focusing on piano and violin for the most part. It sets the tone for the film extremely well.

    The surround speakers were used for music and voices.

    The subwoofer was used to support the music mostly.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu included sounds and scenes from the film.

A Modern Day Love Story (6:51)

Interview with Director David Mackenzie (15:36)

Interview with Eva Green (3:05)

Interview with Ewen Bremner (10:19)

Location Footage (16:07)

Theatrical Trailer (2:41)

    The Blu-ray version of this film in Region A is due for release in May and it only seems to be available on DVD in the UK. The local Blu-ray is the best there is at present.

    The video quality is disappointing for Blu-ray.

    The audio quality is Ok but has problems.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall