Marie & Bruce (2006/Genius DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound:
B- Extras: D Film: C
In just
about all cases, dealing with a dysfunctional relationship in all of its
ugliness is hard to film and has always failed, though the Norman Lear sitcoms
tended to deal with such material best.
Tom Cairns has taken Shawn Wallace’s play Marie & Bruce and turned it into a 2006 feature with Julianne
Moore and Matthew Broderick as the couple on the brink of no return. The language is foul, the dialogue almost
surreal and this is the most successful manifestation of such a relationship I
have seen on film to date and the film still does not work.
Even at a
relatively short 91 minutes, it is hard to keep up such dysfunction, but the
leads have enough chemistry, skill and talent to keep it going, but it is
ultimately going to lead to predictable outcomes and it is hard to suspend
disbelief that anyone would stay together like this without murder or departure
far sooner than we see in the film. For
what it is, it is worth a look if you like the leads and are interested.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is not bad, but you can see detail
limits that either come from an HD shoot, bad digital internegative or just
this format. I give credit to Director
of Photography Patrick Cady for doing his best to make this look as
un-stagebound as possible. The Dolby
Digital 5.1 mix is better the image, but is still dialogue based. There are no extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
