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 The OthersDVD Review by Yanman |
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“This House is ours.” When the trailers came out for the movie The Others we noticed, but with everything going on at the box-office at the time (Opening against American Pie 2) could it compete? Well this one built speed on word of mouth, and made $100 million at the box-office. What is it about a good thriller that draws us in? Is it just the suspense, the trying to figure it out? Or is it more then that? This is a well written suspense thriller that will keep everyone guessing right up until the bitter end! In the 1940’s while her husband is off to war, Grace (Nicole Kidman) must deal with living in a large house with two very light sensitive children. The children’s condition is so perilous, that doors and curtains must be closed and opened to contain the light the same way you would control water on a ship. To aide in this daunting task, Grace enlists the help of three servants, a maid, a nanny/cook, and a gardener. These domestics not only show up mysteriously, but strange things begin to happen after they arrive. Even stranger is when Grace’s long missing husband shows up out of the mist, at a time when is appears that strangers have invaded the house. What is going on? Can a strong woman keep it together and her children safe? Dimension home video offers this one as a two-disc-set with the movie on one disc and the extras on a completely different one. Presumably this is to make enough space on the first disc for the movie with the least amount of compression, thus reducing artifacting. Unfortunately with a film this dark it may not be possible to eliminate all artifacting, it unfortunately is a limitation of the current technology. With that said, the anamorphic 1.85:1 video, while plagued by dark, grainy, and artifacted video, is still very good and still ranks in our average rating. While most suspense thrillers rely on loud continuous music and extreme “bumps in the night” for their soundtracks, The Others takes a different approach, with the tension built through silence and a great story. This is good for the story, but doesn’t leave much leeway in our rating of the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, it does rank in the average rating though. When you look at a two-disc DVD set you expect there to be a huge list of extras included in the mix. That isn’t the case here, with only a handful of bonus features on the list. Included are a behind the scenes look at “The Others”, a visual effects piece, a look at the director Alejandro Amenabar, and a documentary about the rare skin disease portrayed in the movie “Xeroderma Pigmentosum”. Missing are such extras as a director’s commentary, outtakes, and deleted scenes. While many have heralded Moulin Rouge as a great acting performance by Nicole Kidman, this reviewer feels that her role in this film is much better then any role she has tackled up to this point. Kidman is at her best in The Others, a thriller that succeeded against big odds and big films. This DVD is a must watch!
This DVD was reviewed on Yanman.com's Reference Theater #1, using a Toshiba SD-4700 DVD player, Toshiba TW56X81, and M&K 750 THX Speakers. Panamax protects all systems at Yanman.com. |
The Others A well written suspense thriller that will keep everyone guessing right up until the bitter end. Staring: Nicole Kidman Directed By: Alejandro Amenabar Running time: 104 Min. Bonus Materials
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