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Chumscrubber (The)
R4 - Australia - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: Shane Roberts & Noor Razzak (27th December 2006). |
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The Film
 When Dean (Jamie Bell) finds the body of his friend Troy (Josh Janowicz) who has committed suicide he decides not to bother telling anyone because everyone is too self obsessed to notice or care. However, local drug dealers Billy (Justin Chatwin) and Lee (Lou Taylor Pucci) do care because Troy was their supplier. To force Dean to get Troy's stash for them they kidnap his little brother Charlie. However they take the wrong Charlie. Starting with an animated credit sequence of identikit houses popping up on a map to build a picture of a shallow American suburbia, Director and Co-Writer Arie Posin's (with Zac Standford) film introduces a group of dysfunctional families who have no connection to each other. The kids are seemingly left to fend for themselves as they experiment with a wide range of drugs to dull their hollow existences. All the while their parents are too self-absorbed or emotionally stunted to notice or do anything. The original description of a "Chumscrubber" is the person who has the rotten job of cleaning up the fish guts in a fish factory or on a boat. Here, it is 1) the lead character in a video game who battles to save the world from mindless zombies (oh how very clever I mean obvious) and 2) Troy, whose suicide sets in motion the string of events that will hopefully shock everyone out of their thoughtless behaviour. It's not an uninteresting idea but it has all been done before and Posin bangs us over the head repeatedly with the rather obvious message – did everyone have to be such a bad parent? There's a great line-up of talent in the cast but while Jamie Bell and Ralph Fiennes are excellent, Rita Wilson is way too exaggerated and Glenn Close manages to be far too restrained and miles over the top at the same time. Jason Isaacs and Carolyn Goodall as the ineffectual and clueless parents of one of the drug dealers look like they're going to be great but they never get a chance to show it because they barely appear in the film. And Camilla Belle as Crystal, Deans' love interest and only possible ally, well, she looks great but she either took the emotionless drone vibe a bit too literally or she just can't act (and after watching her in last years' "When a Stranger Calls", I'm going with the latter). She seems to deliver every line in a monotone way, while barely changing her facial expression. Wrongly described on the DVD cover as a cross between "Donnie Darko" (2001) and "Desperate Housewives" (2004-Present) because it is nowhere as original as "Donnie Darko" and, while taking the same fable-like tone as "Desperate Housewives", "The Chumscrubber" at least presents the vacuous main characters as terrible rather than the 'pretty' people we are meant to admire. Check it out for an Indie flick with an off-beat tone and a few interesting performances but don't expect anything very original.
Video
Presented in the film's original ratio of 2.40:1 this widecsreen anamorphic transfer is excellent, the image is sharp and detailed, colors are nice and vibrant and skin tones appear natural. Blacks are nice and bold with shadow detail remaining consistent throughout the transfer. Warner's has a fairly good track record at presenting films with excellent transfers and this release is no exception to that.
Audio
Two audio tracks are included on this release, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track as well as an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its 5.1 track. I found that considering this is a dialogue driven film with little in the way of aggressive surround activity I was expecting something rather subdued but this track presents the film and it's suburban environment quite well with well mixed and natural ambient sound. It's not an aggressive or for that matter active surround track but the subtle mix is immersive none-the-less. This film does not include any optional subtitles.
Extras
Warner Brothers have released this film with an audio commentary, a short featurette, a collection of deleted and extended scenes plus the film's theatrical trailer. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up we have a feature-length audio commentary by director Arie Posin and screenwriter Zac Stanford. The duo spent their time explaining a lot of the shot and the set-ups, they also provide some background on the process of writing the script as something they planned on doing on a small scale without Hollywood money. The provide some insight into the making of the film but keep things quite general at times. The track is easy to listen to as the two participants manage to keep you interested in what they have to say. Next up is "The Making of The Chumscrubber" a featurette which runs for 11 minutes 23 seconds, this clip is a basic EPK piece that includes the key cast and crew telling us about their roles in the film in case you weren't paying any attention while watching the film, this clip provides a general overview of the film and little else. Following that are 10 deleted and extended scenes that include: - "Billy Gives Crystal a Necklace" which runs for 1 minute 7 seconds, Billy lies ab out stealing a necklace for Crystal. - "Kids Buy and Sell Pills" runs for 3 minutes 11 seconds, this is an extended version of the scene showing how Troy gets the pills and distributes them. - "Jerrie Tries To Leave Terri a Voicemail" runs for 59 seconds, Terri tries to talk to Charlie through his door when Jerrie leaves messages for her regarding her son's whereabouts. - "How Terri and Michael Met" runs for 1 minute 41 seconds, the flashback scene slightly extended and now inter-cut with another scene. - "Kid Takes Pills" runs for 52 seconds, while looking for Charlie at his house, Dean takes some pills in this extended clip. - "Dad is Weird" runs for 1 minute 35 seconds, Billy's dad tells the kids about his failed marriage and building his model plane. - "Mr. Peck Slaps Billy" runs for 1 minute 19 seconds, Billy's dad disciplines him after he damaged his wall by throwing a knife at it. - "Crystal Tells Billy It's Over" runs for 35 seconds, Billy refuses to believe the kidnapping has failed. - "Billy Hit By Police Car" runs for 2 minutes 14 seconds, in this extended clip, after he's run over his dad's model plane crashes into him. - "Mr. Peck Launches His Plane" runs for 50 seconds, Billy's dad takes the model on it's maiden flight. Rounding out the extras is the film's original theatrical trailer which runs for 2 minutes 21 seconds.
Overall
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