Committed (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Menu Audio Dolby Digital Trailer-Egypt Theatrical Trailer Main Menu Introduction
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	93:48
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Lisa Krueger
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Heather Graham Casey Affleck Luke Wilson Goran Visnjic Alfonso Arau
Case	C-Button-Version 2
RPI	$34.95	Music	Calexico

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/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 for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Committed is a quirky film that's not quite sure which genre it falls into: romantic comedy, straight comedy, road trip, or even cult-film wannabe. Not that that's a bad thing - hey, who needs stereotypes, right? However, at the end of the film I feel somewhat less than committed to enthusing about it.

    Joline (played with gusto by Heather Graham) is a slightly kooky and spiritual young woman who deeply believes in the sacred vows of marriage, "till forever do us part", "for better or worse", etc. When she marries Carl (Luke Wilson), she is determined that she will stick with him and love him always, despite the lack of successful relationships all around her. Her own parents has a habit of "moving on from things, including each other". Even her brother Jay (Casey Affleck) lives with two lesbian roommates Jenny (Kim Dickens) and Mimi (Clea DuVall) with a less than perfect relationship.

    One and a half years into the marriage (well, 597 days to be exact), Carl decides that the only way to break out of his mounting depression is to leave Joline and embark on a voyage of self-discovery. He leaves no forwarding address, save for a postcard with a picture of cactus growing within a desert scene.

    Joline is shattered, but then decides that her faith will not be shaken, and the best way to nurture that faith is to follow Carl and be his guardian angel until he "finds himself." She hires a car, and drives "west" out of New York City, not knowing where Carl is or which direction she is heading but believing that her faith will guide her. After a harrowing but funny encounter with someone who tries to steal her purse when her car gets a flat tyre, she spots Carl's name in a local newspaper (Carl is a photo-journalist) called the "El Paso Times."

    So she heads out to El Paso, Texas, and guess what? Carl is not only working at the newspaper, but is living in a mobile home on the outskirts of town, and (oh-oh) is starting to develop a relationship with a Mexican waitress called Carmen (Patricia Velazquez). In the grand tradition of true stalkers, Joline keeps her vigil over Carl despite her anger at his infidelity, and even develops a friendship with Carmen. In the meantime, Carl's neighbour Neil (Goran Visnjic) is trying his best to seduce Joline, and Carmen's ex-boyfriend T-Bo (Mark Ruffalo) swears vengeance on Carl.

    What happens next? Well, I won't spoil the plot except to say that along the way we get some dazzling desert landscapes as well as occasional forays into Mexican mysticism via Carmen's Grampy (Alfonso Arau).

    This film is the product of writer and director Lisa Krueger, whose previous effort is Manny and Lo (1996), an underground low-budget cult success about two sisters who run away from home and kidnaps a clerk in a baby supply store when one of them falls pregnant.

Video

    This is a good quality and decent transfer presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with 16x9 enhancement.

    The transfer is very pleasing to the eyes, with high levels of detail, solid and detailed blacks, and bright, fully saturated colours. There are virtually no film marks apart from a few minor scratches and there is no grain whatsoever.

    There is some slight telecine wobble at the beginning of the film, and MPEG artefacts are confined to very low level instances of Gibb's effect. All in all, I would rate this a near-perfect transfer.

    There is only one subtitle track on this single sided single layered disc: English for the Hearing Impaired. I turned it on briefly to verify that it was there, and the segment I viewed was quite accurate.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only one audio track on this disc: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 Kb/s) .

    In general, this is a good quality audio track with crisp clear dialogue, good balance between dialogue and music (original score by Calexico), and with very limited but effective Foley effects. I could detect no audio synchronization issues.

    The rear surround speakers were barely utilised for ambience only. Although this is advertised as a 5.1 track, I suspect it is actually a 5.0 track as my subwoofer switched off about 60 minutes into the film.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    The extra on this disc is limited to a theatrical trailer.

Menu

    The menu has an animated intro and background audio. Otherwise, it is pretty barebones but at least it is 16x9 enhanced.

Dolby Digital Trailer-Egypt

    This is the standard Dolby Digital trailer. I forgot how much bass is pumped out of the subwoofer towards the end of this trailer... Well, this is about the only time during the disc where the subwoofer is utilised.

Theatrical Trailer (2:04)

    This is presented in pan & scan (1.33:1) in Dolby Digital 2.0. As is typical for most trailers included as extras, the transfer is somewhat soft compared to that for the main feature.

    Both Region 1 and Region 4 appear to have same set of features (ie., not much).

    Committed is a quirky film that may appeal to some. It is presented on a somewhat bare-bones DVD but with pleasing video and audio transfers.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall