The Job (2009/Magnolia/MagNet DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C     Feature: C

 

 

Con job tales have become formulaic and are especially unoriginal today, more concerned with twists at the end (like a bad mystery script with no imagination) and Shem Bitterman’s The Job (2009) falls into that category despite the acting talents of the likes of Ron Perlman and Joe Pantoliano.  Patrick Flueger (Brothers) plays the young man who is about to get suckered by Jim (Perlman) and the wacky odyssey begins.

 

Unfortunately, we get a project more interested in eccentricities and maybe imitating The Coen Brothers than a well thought out piece than an actual feature-length tale that could have worked with some more risks and concentration on the storyline.  This is supposed to be an award-winning off-Broadway play and to Bitterman’s advantage, this does not feel stagy.  However, it never gels.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is soft and weak, with limited color, detail and depth, to the point that this looks like an HD shoot.  A few shots look good, but not as many as could be.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is barely better than the Dolby 2.0 Stereo, showing that this never had any kind of complex sound mix intended.  Extras include an Alternate Ending that is worse than what they used (what happened to the original play’s ending?) and a Making Of featurette.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo