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Wrinkles AKA Arrugas (Blu-ray)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - Anchor Bay Entertainment Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (9th June 2015). |
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The Film
 Emilio (played by Tacho González in Spanish, Martin Sheen in English) is a bank manager at work talking to 2 clients about a home loan. One of the clients tells him that they are not there for a home loan and he should eat his soup instead. Suddenly, on Emilio’s desk the loan paperwork disappears and a bowl of soup appears. This is not a bank at all, but Emilio is in his own bed, being fed by his son Xóan (played by Raúl Dans in Spanish, Matthew Modine in English) and his daughter-in-law. The son is getting extremely frustrated with his father’s delusions and it is ultimately decided to move Emilio to a nursing home. They choose a nursing home based on the nice facilities including a swimming pool, as Emilio liked to swim. Emilio’s roommate is Miguel (played by Álvaro Guevara in Spanish, George Coe in English), who lived in Argentina most of his life and gives Emilio the nickname “Rockefeller” since he learns that Emilio was a banker. Getting a tour of the place around the nursing home by Miguel, Emilio meets the various patrons, including the rich woman Sol who longs to contact her family, Ramon (played by Paco M. Barreiro in Spanish, William Knight in English) who is nicknamed “DJ Ramon” because he only repeats what other people say, Mrs. Rosario (played by Charo Pena in Spanish, Ellyn Stern in English) who thinks she is traveling to Istanbul on the Orient-Express, Modesto has Alzheimer’s disease and is being taken care of by his elderly loving wife Dolores (played by Xermana Carballido in Spanish, Ann Benson in English), and Antonia (played by Mabel Rivera in Spanish, Lauri Fraser in English) who always asks for the small packets of butter and jam that the others don’t eat after each meal. Miguel has a bad habit of conning the eldery in the home. He has a way with words, offers promises and receives money, but with the elderly being so forgetful, he takes advantage of that. Emilio is not in a happy place in his life. He feels his son has abandoned him, he has difficulty connecting with anyone at the nursing home, and even the one person he is closest to, Miguel is the one he has the biggest trust issues with. The treatment of the eldery by the staff is quite good, and facility offers many things such as the aforementioned swimming pool and basic mental and physical exercises. But there is one place that Miguel tells Emilio to not go to, and that is “upstairs”. The floor above is where they keep the severe cases, and it is the place where there is no hope for the patients to get better. The journey of Emilio’s life at the home has its ups and downs, is both very funny and heartbreaking, and has a few crazy happenings to make audiences smile and be surprised. Based on the graphic novel by Spanish cartoonist Paco Rosa, “Wrinkles” AKA “Arruga” was first published in 2007. For insight into the lives of the elderly, Rosa visited nursing homes, studied about the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, and interviewing friends and family of the elderly patrons for over a year’s time. The graphic novel was an instant hit, selling nearly 30,000 copies in its first year of release, being available in Spanish, French, and Italian during that time. Critically it was also a hit, winning various awards in Spain and around Europe. Working for over 20 years in various positions in animation, “Wrinkles” marks the feature length directorial debut from Ignacio Ferreras. Working previously as an animator on the Sylvain Chomet directed animated film “The Illusionist” in 2010, Ferraras was approached by a Spanish producer to make “Arrugas” as a feature film. With Ferraras living in Edinbugh, Scotland at the time, he was not familiar with the graphic novel. Despite that, he took the offer, but in an unusual way, the film was animated in Spain while the director stayed mostly in Scotland. Through the Internet, Ferraras directed the film remotely, and occasionally going to Spain to supervise things that could not be done via Internet, an example being sound recording and other fine details. Although animated in 2D, “Wrinkles” was fully animated on computers and not on cells, starting with traditional animated storyboards and then brought to life by animators on computers. Certain background color shadings look very “paint” and the character color shades look very solid, making it clear that the ink and paint job was done digitally rather than manually. The characters movements are definitely hand drawn, where you don’t see perfectly smooth unnatural computerized movements. “Wrinkles” was a hard sell as a film. An animated film with elderly people as the main characters is not exactly what sells. Pixar’s “Up” may be one of the only animated film with a geriatric main character to be a hit. In addition, European animation has a very limited market, with very rare occasions for their films to be successful in other countries than their own. For the English market, the English dub was made with quite a cast (Martin Sheen, Matthew Modine, George Coe) and the graphic novel was finally published in English for the first time in 2015, although some names were changed in the English adaptation. Emilio is “Ernest” in the English graphic novel for example, while his name is kept as “Emilio” in the English dub of the film version. Also some things like Miguel and his Argentinian accent are not mentioned in the English version. The treatment of characters going through various stages of Alzheimer’s disease was done wonderfully, sometimes using visual tricks to suddenly jump from daydream to reality, also making use of time cuts to make characters not notice how much time had elapsed. Sometimes days, sometimes months, to even years going by. The story of Modesto and Dolores is especially touching, as it even flashes back to the time they fell in love, and showing the caring feelings Dolores still has for her husband even though he is almost in a vegetable state. As much happiness there is, there is sadness over the fact that no matter what she does, he will no longer remember who she was. With Emilio gradually losing his memory and his hold on reality, the initially naughty character of Miguel really shines as his change in heart and mind is almost the polar opposite of what Emilio goes through. As beautiful as the characters friendships are, aging is inevitable and that death can happen very suddenly. “Wrinkles” won “Best Adapted Screenplay” and “Best Animated Film” at the 2012 Goya Awards, the Special Distinction award at the 2012 Annecy International Animated Film Festival, and nominated for “Best Animated Feature” at the 2012 Annie Awards. Note this is a Region B Blu-ray disc and can be played back on Region B or Region Free Blu-ray players.
Video
Framed at 1.78:1 in 1080p in the AVC MPEG-4 codec, there is very little to fault the transfer. Coming straight from the digital source, the colors and animation look sharp. There is no film grain or digital anomalies to find. The film credits, title card, and dedication card at the end are all in English. The end credits sequence list both English and Spanish voice casts. All signs and writing within the film is in the original Spanish.
Audio
There are 3 soundtracks to choose from: Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English LPCM 2.0 stereo In the 5.1 tracks the dialogue is mostly center based, and directional sounds are sparingly used. The music by Nani García uses the surround speakers, but this is not a music-heavy film. But when the music comes in, it sounds great. There are two choices for subtitles: optional English subtitles (for the Spanish translation), and English HoH subtitles (for the English track). Both are white font and easy to read with no spelling or grammar mistakes.
Extras
The extras are as follows: The complete animatic version of the film (88:08) (with English audio only) For people interested in the filmmaking process, the entire animatic version can be seen. It could have been better to have this as a picture-in-picture extra to compare the animatic with the finished film instead. The only audio track synced to this is the English LPCM 2.0 stereo track. In 1.78:1, 1080p. “Wrinkles: Making of” featurette (2:25) This way-too-short featurette shows preliminary drawings, sketches, behind the scenes footage with no talking or narration. Those looking for an insightful making of will not find it here. Music only, in 1.78:1, 1080p. “Peter Bradshaw reviews Wrinkles” featurette (0:24) British film critic Peter Bradshaw gives a short selfie review on his cellphone at the San Sebastian Film Festival just after watching the film, claiming it to be the best movie he saw there. Again, those looking for an insightful review of the film will not find it here. In English, 1.33:1, PAL. “Recording Music for Wrinkles” featurette (0:26) A way too short look at the musicians about to record the music. Again, no narration, no interviews, and for those looking for how the music was recorded and the inspiration by the composer will not find it here. Music only, in 1.33:1, PAL. Spanish Teaser Trailer (0:59) The teaser’s picture is in 1080p, but is noticeably softer than the main feature Spanish text, in 1.78:1, 1080p. Trailer (1:04) The Trailer’s picture is just as sharp as the main feature. In Spanish with burned in English subtitles and text, 1.78:1, 1080p. So what seems like good extras as listed on the rear cover, it is disappointing that the total runtime of the extras excluding the animatic is a way too short 7 minutes. An interview with the director, the writer, the actors (both Spanish and English), a real making of featurette, would have been ideal. But again, you will not find it here.
Overall
”Wrinkles” is a heartwarming and depressing film that will make you laugh out loud and make you shed some tears. If you have a loved one living in a nursing home, go ahead and give them a visit.
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