Synopsis
Meryl Streep is Nora Ephron and Jack Nicholson is Carl Bernstein. Well, the names aredifferent, but Ephron’s script is based on her novel, which in turn is based on her fractiousmarriage to the Watergate journalist. He is the inveterate womanizer, while she is one of thosefemale protagonists so beloved of romantic comedies that are supposed, I think, to be“charmingly insecure” but read instead as “high-maintenance neurotic.” They get married, andvery swiftly things begin to…go wrong. The talent behind the film is high-powered: beyondStreep, Nicholson and Ephron, there is director Mike Nichols, and cast members Jeff Daniels,Maureen Stapleton, Stockard Channing, Kevin Spacey and Catherine O’Hara. There is wit heretoo, but nothing to really care about. Still, the film scores a couple of points in its favour bystructuring a scene around a viewing of The Brain That Wouldn’t Die.
Audio
The sound comes in both “restored mono” and 5.1, which implies that the 5.1 is a remix. Asthese things to, it is quite successful, in that the music has a generous feel to it, and there are noinappropriate surround voices. There are also virtually no surround effects at all, even in crowdscenes, but this is preferable to the surreal surround that plagues many remixes.
Video
The anamorphic widescreen picture has good flesh tones (though Streep seems unnaturallypasty in some shots), blacks and colours, and there is no visible edge enhancement. On the otherhand, the grain is a problem, varying from the barely noticeable to the severe.
Special Features
None.
Closing Thoughts
Not entirely unamusing, but nothing to rush out to either, and the disc is as bare-bones asthey come.
