La Vie Promise (aka Ghost River)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Film: C

 

 

Isabelle Huppert is a prostitute who keeps trying to throw away the past until her 14 year old daughter follows her by running away from foster care in Olivier Dahan’s La Vie Promise (2002), a mixed drama trying to tell the same old story in a different way, but not getting as far as it thinks it is.

 

Sylvia (Huppert) is a tough lady because she has to be, but when a pimp and his thug henchman come to get money from her she does not have, her daughter stabs the pimp to death.  Then they go on a road trip to escape, but they get separated and find other pitfalls.  The road movie aspect does not hurt the film, but the lack of focus trivializes the more serious side of the story and the screenplay ultimately does not deliver.  Huppert is good enough, but even she cannot save this from not knowing how to amount to what Dahan hoped for.

 

The letterboxed 2.35 X 1 image is poor, weak in color, shadow detail, image richness and don’t even ask about depth.  Cinematographer Alex Lamarque does a decent composition job, but don’t expect much form this transfer.  The film may have been a Dolby and DTS theatrical release, but the Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has no major surrounds and may be a generation down.  Trailers for other Empire releases are the only extras.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo