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This Month's Featured Equipment Reviews |
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Past DVD Hardware / Software News |
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Anniversary Party, The |
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DVD Comedy
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Written by Tara O'Shea
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Tuesday, 15 January 2002 |
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title:
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The Anniversary Party |
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studio:
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New Line Home Entertainment |
| MPAA rating: |
R
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| starring: |
Alan
Cumming, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Kline, Phoebe
Cates, Jane Adams, John C. Reilly, John Benjamin Hickey, Parker Posey,
Denis O'Hare, Mina Badie, Jennifer Beals, Matt Malloy, Michael Panes |
| release year: |
2001 |
| film rating: |
Three-and-a-Half Stars |
| reviewed by: |
Tara O'Shea |
There is something voyeuristic about watching "The Anniversary Party",
a drama starring and written and directed by Alan Cumming and Jennifer
Jason Leigh. The duo cast the movie almost entirely with their friends
and shot on location for almost three weeks in a glass house in the
Hollywood Hills. While the story -- the sixth wedding anniversary party
of actress Sally who has recently reunited with writer husband Joe --
is fiction, the performances and script are very raw and real. And
there is a reason Joe and Sally live in a glass house.
The party guests include each of the spouses' single best friends --
Sally runs to a nebbishy fiddler (Michael Panes) when she cannot bear
her jealousy of Joe's relationship with his photographer pal (Jennifer
Beals). Joe delights in making their business manager's wife,
indie-maven Parker Posey, feel uncomfortable and seems to take
deliberate joy in every single awkward moment. Phoebe Cates and
real-life husband Kevin Kline are marvelous as the veteran married
couple Sophia and Cal Gold, and the Klines' real children play, of
course, the Golds' delightful children. Mina Badie (Leigh's
half-sister) and Denis O'Hare play the couple's brittle, not
particularly likeable neighbours, who are invited only as an attempt to
avoid a lawsuit over Sally's dog Otis. The couple represent the
audience, in many ways, strangers in the strange land inhabited by
Sally, Joe, and their Hollywood friends.
Jane Adams turns in a nails-on-a-chalkboard performance as
simultaneously amusing and desperately pathetic new mother Claire. John
C. Reilly, as her husband, Mac, appears even more laid back than usual
next to his high-strung mate. Rounding out the ensemble, Gwyneth
Paltrow plays clueless starlet Skye Davison, whom Joe has cast in the
film version of his novel, which every person at the party knows is in
fact based on his wife as a young woman. This is only one source of
tension between Joe and Sally that as the course of the evening wears
on comes to a predictably explosive head after the key players indulge
in some Ecstasy. Under the rave drug's influence, all the ugly truths
hidden beneath Sally and Joe's picture-perfect relationship are laid
bare to the audience as well as the couple. Unfortunately, the script
seems to simple stop rather than end satisfactorily, but what it lacks
in closure, "The Anniversary Party" makes up for in characterization.
At times both funny and painfully difficult to watch, "The Anniversary
Party" provides the feeling of eavesdropping on a close-knit group of
friends, business associates, and adversarial neighbours. This is
heightened by the fact that the movie was shot on high-definition
digital video, using a Sony DSR-500 camera, which gives every shot a
feeling of hyper-reality. All the sharp edges are there, practically
and metaphorically, with all of the texture and depth. Nothing is in
hazy soft-focus -- not the characters or their relationships, or the
view of Los Angeles and life in the Industry. It is a relentlessly
brutally honest snapshot of a deeply flawed marriage between two
incredibly screwed-up people. Yet it also reveals the deep affection
that Sally and Joe have for one another, which makes the knives they
wield against one another sharper and more deadly. As a melodrama, it
succeeds despite the slightly flawed script from first-time
collaborators Leigh and Cumming.
The digital video format transfers to DVD with startling clarity and,
because the film foregoes all the film-school nightmare visions of
shaky hand-held "auteur" tricks, casual viewers will be surprised to
learn that "The Anniversary Party" was shot on video. The quality is
extraordinary, and should do much to quell anyone's fears about
high-def video vs. film as we anxiously wait for big-budget projects
such as "Star Wars: Episode II." The colors are consistent throughout,
and the film has a very warm palette, with the exception of the
underwater scenes (which are, incidentally, the only scenes shot on
film). As the film is dialogue-driven, the sound mix is fairly
standard. The film's rich score (featuring original music, as well as
an eclectic mix of bands specifically chosen by the directors) comes
from the rears, while the lion's share of the dialogue is squarely
centered in the front. The left and right mains are used very well
during the party scenes, with whispers and applause being well
integrated with the dialogue.
The directors' commentary is slightly disjointed, as Cumming and Leigh
seem to have been taped independently. The commentary appears to have
been cobbled together from their separate tracks. However, it is
fascinating to hear them explain how they came to conceive of the
project, wrote roles specifically for their friends, and worked aspects
of their lives and relationships into the story. The Sundance Channel
documentary "Anatomy of a Scene" offers further insight into the film,
focussing primarily on the "toast" scenes, and features some excellent
insights into the production, particularly from editor Carol Littleton
and director of photography John Bailey.
The DVD menus are simple and effective. The text, which is only a shade
of two darker than the pastel background, can be marginally difficult
to read. However, the graphics are subtle and fit the tone of the film
perfectly. A gallery of actress Jennifer Beals' stunning
black-and-white photography (which is used to great effect in the film)
is theoretically available in the "cast and crew" section. Either there
was a flaw in the review copy of the disc, or the menu is simply too
clever for its own good, as this reviewer spent 10 minutes trying to
figure out how to get the gallery to load before giving up and viewing
it instead at the film's website, theanniversaryparty.com, thus, no doubt, defeating the purpose.
| more details |
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sound format:
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English (Dolby Digital 5.1) |
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aspect ratio(s):
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1.85:1 |
| special features: |
Audio
commentary with Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh, Anatomy of a
Scene - Sundance Channel Documentary, DVD ROM: Script to screen,
Original web site, cast and crew photos by Jennifer Beals |
| comments: |
email us here... |
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| reference system |
| DVD player: |
Pioneer DV-C302D |
| receiver: |
Yamaha RXU870 |
| main speakers: |
Boston Acoustics |
| center speaker: |
Boston Acoustics |
| rear speakers: |
Boston Acoustics |
| subwoofer: |
Velodyne |
| monitor: |
32" Sony Trinitron |
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