Sometimes, movies are just inexplicably bad, and as a DVD reviewer, I get to see a lot of them. These are films that are so horrible that I sometimes don’t know where to begin. It is often times hard to place blame in one are or another, when the whole production is flawed.
In the case of Lost and Delirious, however, the blame is easy to place. This film is not half bad… the premise is decent, the film looks and sounds better than expected, and the acting, while not fantastic, is respectable. The pro…lem here is the script. The horrible, awful, appalling, embarrassing script. The dialog in this film makes the whole piece feel not… quite… right. It is riddled with so many nonsensical non sequiturs that makes the viewer wonder if the author has been around teenagers at all in the past forty years. Do people really think that teens speak this way?
This pretentious script drags the film down… way down. I hate it when a film pushes the viewer to feel a certain sentiment. That’s what I like about Cameron Crowe’s films; they are not comedies, or dramas, or love stories, they are just films. The viewer is left to react however they wish. This is one of those annoying films, however, which insults the viewer’s intelligence by manipulating them to feel happy, or sad, or remorseful. Being pushed around like that only makes me feel one thing, however… scorn for the film, and for its makers.
Given the right circumstances, this could have been a moving and entertaining examination of the confusing nature of love among teenagers. Instead, it is embarrassing and awkward, and it makes me feel like avoiding this film altogether.
Audio
For a little movie about girls in love, this disc sure has a great soundtrack. Dialog is vibrant and bright, without becoming tinny, thanks to a powerful and tight mix in the low end. Music is very full, and sounds absolutely fantastic (even if it does make a portable stereo sound like a high end hi-fi system). The “maudlin sounds of the college rock station” (to quote one of my favorite lines from Clueless) come through loud and clear, in all their smoke-filled glory.
The only drawback to the track is that the surrounds might as well not even be plugged in, as virtually no signal gets routed to the rear of the room. Aside from this one minor flaw, this is a really nice soundtrack that helps to take the quality of this film up a step in my book.
Video
While not quite as fantastic as the audio, the video presentation is also quite nice. There is some good use of color here, especially the lush greens of the grass and trees, which feature so prominently in this film. The negative appears bright, but not overbearing. Some scenes appear a bit washed-out, but the effect lends an air of classicism to the piece, giving it that perfect Dead Poet’s Society Prep School feel.
Unfortunately, there are blemishes throughout the film; a flaw that perplexingly occurs all too often in newer DVD transfers. While not a major problem, the occasional speck does appear from time to time. I have such a hard time accepting the fact that a film created just two or three years ago should already have flaws on the source print, but there they are, nevertheless.
Special Features
As is the case with many other Lion’s Gate titles, the only extras included with the film are trailers. The spot for Lost and Delirious is here, along with those for the similar gay films All Over the Guy and Better Than Chocolate. I was hoping for some information on the production of the film, and maybe an explanation of why the credits are as convoluted as they are on the back of the box, but unfortunately nothing further is included.
Final Thoughts
Good Will Hunting proves to be the film that this one desperately wants to be. My advice would be to skip the militant man-hating lesbian themes of this film, and watch that masterpiece instead.
Special Features List
- Trailers
