Paulo
Coelho's Best Story
(2014/Music Box DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: C+ Film: C+
Based
on the famous novel The
Alchemist,
which sold 165 million copies and catapulted author Paulo Coelho,
into super stardom he went on an extravagant journey to find himself
and his voice as a writer, Daniel Augusto's Paulo
Coelho's Best Story
(2014, told here in narrative form) follows him as his life took
bizarre turns as he barely escaped madness, fell in love, and toured
in Brazil making Rock 'N Roll history.
This
biography documentary gives us time with and living background to the
man and is not forced, but might not be for everyone. It holds up on
its own enough, but is one of those rare releases where you really
get more by reading the book without it filling the holes of a bad
narrative or documentary film. The film has great acting, good
cinematography and an interesting narrative that is pretty solid
throughout.
Presented
in standard definition with an anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of
1.85:1 and a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track in Portuguese with English
and Spanish subtitles, the film looks and sounds fine on DVD, but
could benefit to a Blu-ray release.
Extras
include...
The
Road to Santiago featurette
Special
Effects and Makeup featurette
Interviews
with Cast Members including Julio Andrade and Paz Vega
And
a Theatrical Trailer along with advertisements for other Music Box
releases.
If
you're a fan of the author or his work, then you won't want to miss
this interesting look at his life. Even if you aren't, you'll still
find an interesting narrative brought to life by good filmmaking and
a solid cast.
-
James Harland Lockhart V
www.facebook.com/jhl5films
