The Lodger
(2008/Sony DVD)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: C-
Based on
the famous book and films on the actual Jack The Ripper, Writer/Director David
Ondaatje tries to have it every way he can on his new film of The Lodger, taking place in Los Angeles
and Hollywood now, with suggestions of everything from deadly copycats to the
possibility the real Ripper is still alive by supernatural means a century
later. It has been a while since anyone
has attempted to make any film on the subject, in part because The Hughes
Brothers did such a thorough job with their film From Hell. You can read more
about that at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6169/From+Hell+(2001/Blu-ray)
This
time, we have a detective (the underrated Alfred Molina) investigating the
first of what turns out to be related murders and then are introduced to all
manner of characters and living. Hope
Davis, Simon Baker, Donal Logue, Philip Baker Hall, Rachel Leigh Cook and Shane
West are among the more noticeable faces and at first, this is interesting,
then it is obvious the script does not know where to go and backs itself into a
corner for which it cannot escape.
I was
also interested in how often Ondaatje was notably “inspired” by the TV movies The Night Stalker (1972), The Night Strangler (1973) and series Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-75,
all reviewed elsewhere on this site) in several scenes. Maybe he thought others might not notice, but
I sure did. If anything, I was hoping it
was a jumping point to a good story, but when this goes into decline, boy does
it crash. I wonder how close it really
was to the Marie Belloc Lowndes book?
Likely not much.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 is a little soft throughout, likely an HD
shoot, but we have seen worse, especially from TV and the straight-to-DVD
market, while the Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 mixes are nothing special with
little difference. Extras include a
making of featurette and deleted/alternate scenes.
- Nicholas Sheffo
