CMFH Film Reviews

2005, USA
Crime, Drama, Mystery
Review by Deborah Dearth

Steven Soderbergh (Oceans Eleven, Traffic) attempts to pop the bubble that has sheltered the world of movie release with his first of six high-definition films. Using non-actors and digital equipment, he creates a small film about a small town where an unpredictable crime occurs. This scant film (73 minutes runtime) however will go down in movie history as the first to be released simultaneously in the theatres, on DVD and on television.

As more movies are being pirated and more customers are fed up with lousy theatre experience and prefer their personal widescreen televisions, the age of concurrent release is due a discussion. Executive producer Mark Cuban (also of Good Night, and Good Luck) fully supported Soderbergh by allowing him to release the film digitally in Cuban's Landmark Theatres, on his HDNet Movies channel, and on DVD via his Magnolia Pictures. What is difficult to determine is how to apply the financial results for such a small film to the idea of using the same process for wide-release blockbusters. If Soderbergh does not directly answer this question, he at least gets the ball rolling and makes a few theatre owners a little twitchy.

Aside from the pure business talk the film has generated, its simplicity in plot and direction is quite a change from Soderbergh's flashier, big-named-filled flicks. The crew approached a quaint Ohio River Valley town and literally grabbed strangers off the street as possible acting candidates. The cast they discovered resulted in a core group of three (Dustin James Ashley, Debbie Doebereiner, and Misty Dawn Wilkins), whose simple delivery and natural portrayals are the result of a complete lack of written dialogue. Writer Coleman Hough (Soderbergh's Full Frontal) chose to merely present the actors with an outline, and allow them to decide how their characters would arrive at each bulletpoint. The dialogue therefore lacks any great variety, but maintains the simple day-to-day humdrum that can be heard in a place such as the movie's doll factory. When confronted with a difficult situation, their emotions are subtle and recognizable, not over-the-top or Oscar-nodding. But overall these unknowns accomplish much considering their limited resources.

The film is quietly thoughtful and surprisingly detailed at its conclusion, providing a good lead for Soderbergh's next five follow-ups. The release debate will surely become heated, but will hopefully result in better efforts on behalf of both theatre management and television technology. Personally, I am a big proponent of cell phone signal scrambling and aisle bouncers for the quiet-impaired.

Extras on this disc include a very interesting commentary track that acts more like a an interview of Soderbergh by music video director Mark Romanek. Another commentary track involves the actors with writer Hough. Also included are featurettes about the real lives of the actors -- not terribly different from their characters though much improved -- and the interviews that landed them their new jobs.