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Open Road (The)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Anchor Bay Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan C. Stevenson (16th November 2009). |
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The Film
 I feel sort of special, reason being that I am one of the mere few thousand or so people to have seen “The Open Road.” Released in theaters a few months back (in August of 2009) for just 2 weeks, the film had what I’ll refer to as a “less-than-limited” release, gracing only fourteen screens. It made a tick under $20,000 during that time. A few more statistics to consider: as of this writing, fewer than 300 people have rated this film on IMDB and it has a mere 4 reviews on Rottentomatoes (it doesn’t even register on the TomatoMeter). Why is the above so surprising? Why do I mention these various numerical facts? Because, I find it amazing that a film staring Justin Timberlake and Jeff Bridges could even remotely be associated with such abysmal stats. I would think that their names alone would bring a fair amount of people to theaters… or at least more than $20,000 worth of ticket holders. Frankly, a distributor has to try and get these kinds of low numbers. They would not just have to badly market a film with those names attached to pull in such sorry figures, they’d have to actively not market said picture at all. And, perhaps, that is what happened with “The Open Road.” The studio engaged in an active non-marketing campaign, if you will. I don’t think I even saw a preview anywhere; not in theaters, nor on TV, not even on another Anchor Bay DVD. I wasn’t even aware of this film's existence until it was announced for simultaneous DVD and Blu-ray release a month or two ago. Now, believe me, I’m not trying to make the lackluster publicity for this film out to be the greatest crime against film in all of cinematic history, not at all, but I do think that “The Open Road” deserved more than the non-starter it received. The story is a simple one. Carlton Garrett (Justin Timberlake), the son of baseball legend Kyle Garrett (Jeff Bridges), is asked by his mother (Mary Steenburgen) to find his father, and bring Kyle to her before she has (possibly fatal) surgery, as she wants to talk to her ex-husband for one last time. Carlton obliges his sick mother, flying out to meet his estranged father, with his on-again, off-again girlfriend Lucy (Kate Mara) along for the trip as emotional support. Complications arise, and for reasons I won’t divulge, Carlton, Lucy and Kyle end up in a rental car speeding down the highway just trying to reach Steenburgen’s character in time. What follows is a drama, with some slight, and I mean slight, comedic moments (this is certainly not the comedy that the included trailer makes this out to be), about a man trying to reconnect with a father who was never there for him, while balancing an equally rocky relationship with his (ex) girlfriend. Okay, so the premise isn’t entirely original. In fact, I’d say it’s been done better before, but it’s also not terribly executed here. Believe it or not, Timberlake is not awful. As amazing as it may seem, he and Bridges (who is, as always, dependable in his role; this time as an emotionally distant, but ultimately likeable, father character) have believable chemistry together. The scenes in which they hash it out, blaming each other for their lack of a relationship, are probably the highlight of the film. Timberlake isn’t Olivier, but he’s fair in his role, and it’s certainly not out of his reach to express the range needed for the part of Carlton. And Bridges delivers, certainly, as he plays Kyle in an understated but scene-stealing fashion. The script is no doubt at least partly autobiographical. Writer and director Michael Meredith is the son of Football great Don Meredith; how much of this story is pure fiction is anyone’s guess, but, at least some of the story happened in his life, I am certain. The bits about the troubled father-son relationship seem genuine, almost like Meredith was working his own relationship with his father out as he put the words to the page. Carlton (a fictionalized version of Michael Meredith) has aspirations of being a writer, even commenting that he may one day take the adventure they have in this film and adapt it into a novel or screenplay. And adapt it he has. Meredith brings his story to the big screen with this 90-minute feature, and does so in a way that is a bit problematic. Structurally, the film is somewhat flawed, mostly because it’s oddly paced. For a “road movie,” it takes an awful long time to get to the road, finally doing so at nearly half-an-hour into the film, and once there, it seems all-too-quickly to be over. Not to mention that the film is a bit formulaic and predictable. Nonetheless, the film remains engaging and well made. Although “The Open Road” is definitely a low budget film, the direction is sharp and the production values don’t feel cheap. Shot in multiple states, of the span of about a month, the natural photography of lush American backcountry is often beautiful and adds a great deal to the experience. Is “The Open Road” a modern masterpiece? No, it isn’t. But it’s worth watching at least once, if for no other reason than to see Bridges and Timberlake on screen together. Do yourself a favor and rent this movie. Hopefully, like me, you’ll be a bit surprised.
Video
As I sat watching the first 25 or so minutes of “The Open Road,” with it’s 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 encoded, 2.35:1 framed transfer, I was not a happy camper. Being met with soft imagery, frequent, noisy blocking, incredibly inconsistent black levels, and an overall murky, ugly, and dark picture, I thought I was in for a rough 90 minutes of a problematic high-definition presentation. Thankfully, once the film slides into a comfortable place, things improve rather dramatically and I wasn’t entirely disappointed by this disc. As our characters hit the open road (lame, I know), and backdrops of daylight exteriors take over, colors become livelier, blacks much more consistent, not to mention deep, and detail, far stronger. Contrast is excellent, for the most part, and the film is impressively dimensional in many scenes. In short, “The Open Road” is a far better looking film than the first third lets on. It’s much, much better; save for one small issue, anyway. The problem? Three words: Digital. Noise. Reduction. Or so I can gather. Medium shots and close ups fare reasonably well in the detail department, looking decidedly high-definition in quality and sharpness, but long shots are inconsistently hazy, soft and undefined (this becomes distracting as the later portion of the film improves in this regard). Could this be a side effect of the anamorphic photography? Possibly, at least somewhat, but I’ve never seen a 35mm Panavision product look as murky and smeary as “The Open Road” does in it’s worst moments. The complete absence of film grain in many scenes, and a mild case of slightly waxy faces lead me to the conclusion that DNR has been applied here. Is the film a complete loss on Blu-ray then? Absolutely not. Not at all, in fact, a majority of the film simply just looks a bit diffused, but it’s almost always still crisp enough to deliver acceptable 1080p visuals. “The Open Road” was never going to be a disc to break out and demo one’s home theater with, and, considering this was a relatively low budget “indie” project, the fact that it’s even available on Blu-ray at all is rather surprising, and, aside from the unnecessary noise reduction, the disc looks fine. But, at the same time, because of said DNR, I was a little disappointed.
Audio
Wrapped in the English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) codec, “The Open Road” is not the most energetic or forceful lossless mix I’ve come across lately, but then again, I wasn’t really expecting it to be. The film sounds about right for a subdued, “indie” road movie. The track is mostly just lots of dialogue, which, thankfully, is clean and clear. There is some mild ambience and variance in environmental sound design, confined to the front left and right speakers almost exclusively. Composer Christopher Lennertz provides an acoustic guitar-heavy soundtrack, which is supportive and probably the most satisfying aspect of the mix, as it opens up and widens depth, and provides the most dynamic range in the film. Optional subtitles are offered in English and Spanish.
Extras
There’s not much to talk about on the extras front for this Blu-ray edition of “The Open Road.” Anchor Bay/Starz offer up a standard audio commentary with the director/writer and one of the stars from the film, a brief featurette, the film’s original theatrical trailer and a few bonus trailers. The included commentary does a decent job making up for the lackluster package, but, still, I’d like to see a bit more breadth in the supplements on future Blu-ray discs from the distributor. To be fair, it seems that Anchor Bay/Starz is listening, as proven by the fact that many of their other recent high-def releases are sporting "BonusView" and BD-Live compatibility. All video based material is presented in 1080p 24/fps high definition. Screenwriter/Director Michael Meredith and actor Jeff Bridges sit down for a low-key audio commentary. They discuss the film, which Bridges is only seeing completed for the first time as they record the track, by sharing anecdotes about the production. Meredith also does a good job talking about the origins of his story and how the film came to be. Revealing, if a little dry, this commentary nicely supplements the film, but both of the participants have such an easy going, laidback delivery and their clear-cut dialogue is almost sleep inducing, so beware. “Behind-the-Scenes of The Open Road” is your (not so) standard EPK featurette; yes, it’s full of canned interviews, from Bridges, Timberlake, director/writer Michael Meredith, and others, in which they briefly discuss the plot of the film and their characters, but it’s done in a hyper-stylized, faux-artsy way. The interviews are a bit grainy, on set footage has been post-processed to look like old Super 8 home movies, odd footage of sped up roads and high contrast film clips, that have been chopped up and set to a cheesy score, are interspersed throughout. This is harmless stuff, but not all that insightful either. 6 minutes 45 seconds. The film’s theatrical trailer is also included. 2 minutes 14 seconds. Three bonus trailers are found under the heading “Also on Blu-ray Disc.” Previews include: - “Spread.” 2 minutes 22 seconds. - “Mad Money.” 1 minutes 7 seconds. - “Last Chance Harvey.” 2 minutes 36 seconds. Anchor Bay/Starz also include their standard bookmarking feature.
Overall
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