Perth (DTS/Tartan)
Picture:
C Sound: B- Extras: C Film: C
I knew I
was in trouble when the DVD case for Djinn’s Perth (2006) called itself Singapore’s answer to Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (just because the main
character is angry and drives a taxi for a living?) though the idea that going
to Australia as a place to retire has its possibilities.
Unfortunately,
this is not a strong portrait of the angry and lonely because it gets too hung
up in fancy camera shots, edits that don’t work (sometimes embarrassingly so)
and no ironic distance from the situation at hand. Its ideas about redemption are nothing new
and also do not work, repeating everything we have seen before and better in
other films and not just from Scorsese.
Despite being award winning, it is ultimately an overrated curio at
best.
Though
listed as anamorphically enhanced, this is actually letterboxed only and at
1.78 X 1 is very soft and inconsistent throughout. The DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes can only
boost the on location stereo and the overall fidelity is not good. Extras include set design featurette, two
audio commentary tracks, original trailer and deleted scenes that did not make
much of a difference.
- Nicholas Sheffo
