Breathtaking (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Main Menu Audio & Animation Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	100:16
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	David Green
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Joanne Whalley Lorraine Pilkington Neil Dudgeon Jamie Foreman
Case	?
RPI	Rental	Music	Rob Lane

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/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

    It's quite ironic that I sat down to watch this film on a Friday night, since if it were to appear on television here, this is the most likely time slot that it would fill. The British psychological thriller has a certain number of set elements and must be a delight to cast. Think of the following characters: the astute and savvy psychologist, the long suffering patient, the even longer suffering spouses, and of course the old Bill always one step behind the bad guy. Breathtaking (I have no idea where this title comes from, as there is really no reference to it anywhere in the story), meets all these criteria. Unfortunately it lacks anything even remotely resembling a plausible plot.

    Joanne Whalley plays Dr Caroline Henshaw, a respected career-woman psychiatrist focused solely on her job and little else. Her husband is becoming increasingly agitated as she is spending little time with him in their minimalist yet trendy apartment. Sex is out of the question, she is eating little and exercising so often that he feels she must have an eating disorder. She is also displaying a slight signs of not being quite right in the head herself and this is obviously so critical to the overall plot that it is conveyed with no regard for subtlety. In fact, you are whacked right over the head with it in the first twenty minutes, when Caroline starts seeing things and cleans up a broken vase with a large knife of all things. With that premise firmly fixed into the story, Dr Henshaw's sees a patient at the hospital who is having some mental problems. Sandra (Lorraine Pilkington) is admitted to her in a quite agitated state claiming that her husband is beating the living daylights out of her. It is feared she may harm him or herself and is admitted for observation. Caroline tries to help Sandra, but this proves pointless as she insists on leaving hospital and staying with her ruffian of a husband who himself has taken an instant dislike to the snooty psych. The plot takes a minor twist when he begins stalking Caroline and she begins to become even more emotionally agitated and bizarre. She has a skeleton or two in the closet that may just surface and cause her to do something she may regret.

    This film features an incredibly contrived plot, and a script that is so awful it is occasionally embarrassing to listen to. Many scenes have simply been written in such a way as to satisfy the next plot thread with little regard for how silly they seem to the overall story. I mean, would you let your wife go jogging through Hampstead Heath at night if someone had been murdered there just a month ago? Give me a break.

Video

    I was a little surprised by the quality of the video transfer on offer. Not top shelf by any means, but mostly pleasing to the eye. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is also 16x9 enhanced.

    A moderately sharp and detailed transfer that exhibits excellent clarity and a decent level of shadow detail. There is only minimal grain, which does not become at all distracting. There is no low level noise. Colours are adequate without being overly saturated. Any film shot in London will exhibit a certain greyness and this is no exception. It really is a grey and gloomy place. Some of the outrageous outfits worn by Joanne Whalley are quite vibrant and colourful, but that's about it.

    There is no apparent MPEG artefacting. There are several instances of minor film-to-video artefacting, in the form of aliasing. The most obvious examples occur at 5:25, 6:35, 36:00, and 47:55. Film artefacts are surprisingly absent, until the very last few frames, which become quite grubby and feature several nicks and scratches.

    There is only one option for subtitles. These are naturally enough of the English variety and are as accurate as can be expected.

    This is a single layer disc, so there is no layer change to navigate.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only one audio soundtrack on this disc. It is a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack with the surround flag present in the bitstream.

    A dialogue centric film, that features few bangs or crashes. There is little separation across the front speakers, though given the nature of the film it is not missed all that much. Dialogue is clear at most times with little evidence of any audio sync problems.

    The music is by BBC composer Rob Lane. Nothing to rave over. You've heard the style a thousand times before.

    I can't recall any surround or subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio & Animation

Theatrical Trailer

    Watch the trailer and you don't need to bother watching the film. Normally I'd suggest otherwise, but in this case it might be a good idea, as it'll save you two hours of your life. For those of you that are interested it is presented full screen and runs for 1:32 minutes.

    I can't find any reference to this title being available in Region 1. I had a scout around for a Region 2 version and also failed to find any reference to it. I guess the Region 4 version is the preferred choice at this stage.

    This would have to be among the most contrived and poorly executed film scripts I have seen in long long time. The actors look somewhat embarrassed by several of the lines of dialogue and as a result it is incredibly difficult to take the whole thing seriously.

    The video is slightly above average, though not to the quality of a larger budget film.

    The audio is likewise serviceable for the job, but is nothing special.

    The extras are limited to a trailer.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall