The Experiment (2010/Sony Blu-ray)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: C+
The
underappreciated Adrien Brody is back as one of 26 men who decide to sign up
for a project where they are confined in a situation where they could be either
prisoners or guards, but the financial compensation will help little when
everything goes predictably wrong in Paul T. Scheuring’s The Experiment (2010), a new film that gets sidetracked quickly and
only has some good performances to keep it watchable.
Forest
Whittaker is a great match for Brody as the guard who intends to keep things
going and push everyone (especially Brody’s Travis) past the point of no
return. Based on Mario Giordano’s novel Black
Box, this is also a remake of an older German film Das Experiment, but Mr. Scheuring’s major work on TV’s
once-interesting Prison Break turns
out to be more of a hindrance than help as the final film seems more like a Fight Club wanna be than a film that
wants to go all the way and say anything about the results of the disaster at
hand.
The
result is a film that does not have the guts it could or should have, as it is
more of a Hollywood production than anything
cutting edge. Of course, Brody and
Whittaker are good as usual and some scenes are intense, but that is not
enough, even when they get good support from actors like Cam Giganet, Maggie
Grace, Travis Fimmel, Fisher Stevens and the ever-inarguable Clifton Collins,
Jr., so the cast is not the problem here.
No, I was
not expecting some “subversive” work, the attempts of which tend to be
predictable, tired and corny, but I did want the film to be more honest and
self-reflective about its events and human nature instead of just showing
things and moving on in a way that does not do justice to the acting here. The result is yet another missed opportunity
for a great film, but if you like the actors, you might still want to see this
one just the same.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is shot in Super 35mm film and has some
softness throughout, in part through stylizing, but Director of Photography Amy
Vincent (Hustle & Flow, Eve’s Bayou) does a decent job just the
same, though I expected a little more from the performance here. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 5.1 mix
is also dialogue-based and a little underwhelming, pointing to some recording
limits in the production, but Graeme Revell delivers a score that helps. Extras include trailers for this and other
Sony releases.
- Nicholas Sheffo
