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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Falling in Love (1984)

Falling in Love (1984)

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Released 5-Jul-2002

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Drama None
Rating Rated PG
Year Of Production 1984
Running Time 102:05
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (53:42) Cast & Crew
Start Up Language Select Then Programme
Region Coding 4 Directed By Ulu Grosbard
Studio
Distributor

Paramount Home Entertainment
Starring Robert De Niro
Meryl Streep
Dianne Wiest
David Clennon
Jane Kaczmarek
George Martin
Harvey Keitel
Case ?
RPI $39.95 Music Dave Grusin


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio Unknown Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
English for the Hearing Impaired
Slovenian
French
German
Swedish
Danish
Norwegian
Finnish
Dutch
Bulgarian
Icelandic
Portuguese
Hebrew
Greek
Croatian
Arabic
Turkish
Polish
Italian
Spanish
Romanian
Czech
Hungarian
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Those of you who have been waiting to see Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep as lovers in a romantic movie should probably continue waiting. Otherwise, you may have to risk being disappointed with Falling In Love.

    Not that there's anything terribly wrong with the film - it would probably make a decent (though somewhat slow-moving and perhaps a bit aimless) TV movie to while away the time on a Sunday afternoon. But given the cast I couldn't help feeling it could have been so much more.

    Frank Raftis (Robert De Niro) and Molly Gilmore (Meryl Streep) meets by chance one Christmas Eve whilst shopping for Christmas presents at a bookstore in New York. They collide into each other and try and sort each other's shopping bags. By accident, they swap their Christmas presents to their respective spouses - one is a book on sailing, the other on gardening.

    Three months later, they accidentally meet each other again in a commuter train - it turns out they live in neighbouring suburbs in New Jersey and both have the habit of catching the same train to New York - Frank because he works in the city as a construction engineer at a building site, and Molly because she is visiting her sick father in hospital.

    Needless to say, the two are attracted to each other and start seeing one another. Both appear on the surface to be happily married to loving spouses and Frank even has kids. And yet both are wrestling with doubt and indecision. Molly's own child died and she is worried for the health of her aging father. Frank is currently considering whether he should move to Houston for his next big project.

    A significant part of the film is about how two sensible, quiet and somewhat shy adults can be so smitten with one another that they behave like goofy high school sweethearts pining for each other. Sooner or later you know they have to face reality. When will their spouses - Ann Raftis (Jane Kaczmarek) and Brian Gilmore (David Clennon) - find out? How will their friends - Ed Lasky (Harvey Keitel) and Isabelle (Dianne Wiest) - react? Will they split or stay together?

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced, close enough to presumably an intended aspect ratio of 1.85:1.

    Although there are no major faults in the transfer, the film source is definitely showing its age, looking somewhat grainy and the colours are drab and faded. I also felt the colours tend to veer towards bluish, and the overall look is on the soft side.

    I could detect some evidence of ringing around the opening titles, but apart from that the transfer seems reasonably free of video artefacts.

    There are no less than 24 subtitle tracks on this disc, including both English and English for the Hearing Impaired as well as numerous European languages. I turned on both the English subtitle tracks briefly and there wasn't a lot of difference between them except one would include the name of the character in the dialogue where it is not immediately obvious from looking at the film.

    This is a single sided dual layered disc (RSDL) and the layer change happens at 53:42 - at around the half way point - resulting in a slight pause.

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

Audio

    There are several audio tracks on this disc, all in Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s); English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

    I am surprised that the audio tracks are not surround encoded, as the film was released in Dolby Stereo. However, I did not detect any rear channel activity even when Dolby Pro Logic was engaged.

    The film is very dialogue focused, apart from the music soundtrack which is in stereo. The original music score by Dave Grusin is alternatively jazzy and soft.

    Although there were no audio synchronisation issues, Robert De Niro has a tendency to mumble at times. The scene where the waitress is reciting a list of beer labels (around 6:02-6:09) is almost impossible to understand unless you are very familiar with American beer varieties or if you turn the subtitle track on which I did.

    Dialogue sounded somewhat distorted (due to clipping) around 78:42.

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

Extras

    There are no extras on this disc. The menu is 16x9 enhanced and static.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

    There are no significant differences between the two regions.

Summary

    Falling In Love is a romantic drama that stars Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep, but somehow still manages to be disappointing. The audio and video transfers are mediocre, and there are no extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Christine Tham (read my biography)
Thursday, July 11, 2002
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-626D, using Component output
DisplaySony VPL-VW11HT LCD Projector, ScreenTechnics 16x9 matte white screen (254cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationDenon AVR-3300
SpeakersFront and rears: B&W CDM7NT; centre: B&W CDMCNT; subwoofer: B&W ASW2500

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