At First Sight (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer-1.78:1, 16x9, Dolby Digital 2.0
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	123:24 (Case: 136)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Irwin Winkler
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Val Kilmer Mira Sorvino Kelly McGillis Steven Weber Bruce Davison Nathan Lane
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$34.95	Music	Mark Isham

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Spanish 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 English for the Hearing Impaired German German for the Hearing Impaired French Italian Spanish Dutch Swedish Finnish Norwegian Danish Portuguese Polish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, mildly
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Based upon a true story and the book by Oliver Sacks, Virgil Adamson (Val Kilmer) is a masseur for a resort in the Bear Mountains. He also happens to have been blind since the age of three. Entering the scene is one rather stressed-out New York architect in Amy Benic (Mira Sorvino) seeking a quick fix for unwinding at the resort, and heads to the masseur for help. Cue the inevitable love interest. Amy is a well-meaning person, and seeks out an expert who may be able to restore Virgil's sight. Unfortunately, Virgil is initially somewhat upset by her meddling in something that he does not perceive as a handicap. Cue also the long-suffering sister in Jenny Adamson (Kelly McGillis) who gets just a tad jealous when Amy comes blundering into her domain, that is, her brother's life. Naturally Virgil has the obligatory disagreement with Jenny and decides that, unable to contemplate life without Amy (I can sympathize), he will head to New York to have the operation to restore his sight. Cue the inevitable miracle performed by Dr Charles Aaron (Bruce Davison). Ah, but thankfully the story then takes a sharp left turn and things don't quite go to plan. Amy has difficulty adjusting to looking after a rehabilitating former blind person, Virgil has difficulty coming to grips with sight and Jenny just has difficulties letting go. Add into the mix a visual therapist in Phil Webster (Nathan Lane) with a odd approach to things (including doling out advice at the local topless bar), and this is a departure from the usual boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy does whatever he can to keep girl and they all live happily ever after story. Things don't go according to Amy's master plan and she has to deal with the consequences as does Virgil - except Virgil is back to a world that he understands, whilst Amy has lost something that could have been very good and knows it.

    This to me is not a story so much about what constitutes a handicap and how to overcome it, as many suggested it is, but rather a story about the importance of unconditional love in a relationship. It is about accepting that disabilities are only disabilities if you let them be. It is about accepting people for what they are, not what you want them to be. It is about accepting the challenges of life and accepting the disappointments that will sometimes be the result. The story may start out just a tad clichéd, but the left turn is really what makes this work and work well. Add to that a great performance from Val Kilmer as the blind man adapting to a world he is not destined to enjoy for long. According to the booklet included with the Region 1 release (which is sadly lacking in the Region 4 release), he undertook a lot of study about massage (with a blind masseur) to the extent that he apparently actually did all the massage scenes with Mira Sorvino and she apparently loved it. Now I could probably enjoy a couple of hours of Mira Sorvino just smiling on screen, so my views upon her performance are perhaps a tad biased, but she carries off the role of the well-meaning architect very well indeed - as well as looking sensational to boot. Kelly McGillis returns to the big screen and is quietly effective as the well-meaning sister, but the star here as ever is the superb Nathan Lane as the visual therapist. A superb directorial job from Irwin Winkler keeps the film moving along quite nicely, and this really deserves far more appreciation than it appears to have garnered thus far.

Video

    This actually becomes a bit of a dichotomy of a transfer: at times gloriously sharp with some wonderful definition, at other times just a little soft in its focus and just a little grainy. It is a reasonably clear transfer, but overall I felt this was a little underwhelming for such a recent transfer. Shadow detail was good throughout the film especially early on. There did not appear to be any low level noise problems in the transfer.

    The colours are wonderfully rendered throughout the film, not especially vibrant but wonderfully natural. There is a nice contrast between the bright country feel of the town of Pinecrest and Bear Mountain resort and the more dour, dirty feel of New York. This is not a film of really bright, garish colours and even when there was a lot of colour, it remained nicely natural in feel.

    There were no significant MPEG artefacts noted in the transfer, although there was just the odd hint of some compression artefacts here and there. Nothing too serious mind, but just a little bothersome especially for a two hour film on a dual layer disc. The opening logo is a prime example of the problem. There were no significant film-to-video artefacts noted in the transfer either. Once again we have a recent film with slightly more film artefacts than I was expecting, although it is fair to say that they were not especially noticeable nor distracting to the film.

    This disc is an RSDL format disc, but I cannot tell you where the layer change is, as I did not notice it. The transfer by the way is from a French master.

Audio

    Dialogue was always clear and easy to understand.

    There were no apparent audio sync problems with the disc.

    The score by Mark Isham is a quite wonderfully sympathetic score that adds just the right sort of tone to the film. This is one of his best efforts in film in my view.

    This is a gorgeously detailed soundtrack, and if you want a fine demonstration of sound, just check out the sequence in the disused gas station during the rain. There are some gorgeous directional and subtle effects with rain dripping into pools, water gushing down broken down pipes, rain dripping onto windows and tree branches scraping skylights. It is regrettable that audio demonstration often is taken to mean high energy action with thumping bass. Listen to this effort - this is the sort of detail that every soundtrack should be striving for. Obviously the use of the surround channels is quite wonderful here, and even more refreshing is that the bass channel gets only limited support usage, which again complements the film well. The resultant soundscape is quite wonderful and all the doubts I had going into this review, after my earlier experiences with the Region 1 release sound-wise, are completely dispelled.

Menu

Theatrical Trailer (2:25)

• Pan and Scan version of the film
• Booklet

    A good if not exceptional video transfer.

    A very good audio transfer.

    The extras are barely adequate.

    And in my never ending quest for improvement in packaging, could someone please enlighten me as to what the heck "16:9 anamorphic stretch" is supposed to mean? The term you are looking for is very simple, very straightforward and easily understood - "16x9 enhanced". Why not use it?

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall