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Anamorph
R1 - America - Genius Products Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (25th January 2009). |
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The Film
 Even though actors are supposed to be able to mould into different characters, actors often just become themselves, meaning their actor persona and any character they portray simply become merged into one. Some actors do a fantastic job of just blending, appearing in odd places and don’t really show up until you look hard, falling into the “you’re right, it’s that guy!” territory like Justin Theroux or Gary Oldman (to a degree). Other actors just dominate the film and the film is known by the actor moreso than the character, or even the writer and director of the film, like was the case with “Hounddog” (2006), better known as “the Dakota Fanning rape movie”, a film that not only got critically panned and understandably overlooked in the box office, but was infamous in pre-production for a scene where Fanning’s character was going to get raped. These movies that simply become the main actor’s name don’t always turn out to be flops, sometimes its just because there’s no other impression than the fact that a major actor is in the film. For me, “Anamorph” (2007) became one of those actor only films, labeled in my mind as the “Willem Dafoe Detective Movie” as every trailer that came as a start-up on DVD’s I had to watch mostly just had Willem Dafoe being a Willem Dafoe. While his character has a bit more depth than that, the film itself honestly isn’t much more memorable. Dafoe plays Stan, a detective who is still trying to get over dealing with a serial killer 5 years ago and has gone into a state of semi-retirement, teaching classes at a local college. Unfortunately there’s a new serial killer on the loose who may possibly be connected to the killer that Stan defeated and has been haunted by. Each murder is presented as a work of art, relying on a perspective technique called anamorphosis that gives a different image when the painting or image is viewed from a different perspective. Stan gets closer to the case, but keeps flashing back to the disturbing trial and murders that happened years before, much to the frustration of his new partner Carl (Scott Speedman). The story sounds familiar and tends to follow the police procedural that audiences are used to. Victim found. Detective pursues killer. Killer is smart, evades detectives. Detectives get close. Killer is smarter. Detectives catch killer, sometimes at a cost. It all follows a fairly traditional formula, but the idea behind this killer’s angle is fairly clever and inventive. Unfortunately the writing and directing don’t have the same level of creativity. At times of chase or high tension, the directing doesn’t really seem to get into the scene, never adding to the intensity. Instead the directing lets the moment pass while the music tries to ramp up some sort of engagement that is being put off by the directing. On the upside however the special effects or creativeness of the killer is still fun to watch. It doesn’t quite meet the inventiveness of the “Saw” series (2004-2008) where the new trap is the new draw to each following film. The victims of "Anamorph" bring some liveliness to the film drawing my interest out of occasional boredom and back into the film. However since Dafoe’s character progression seems to be the centerpiece, the killer and the creativity seems to fall apart around it and my interest again falls into the background of the film. Overall “Anamorph” is an example of a very clever idea that just doesn’t know how to deliver on it’s concept visually or back it up with a very strong script. The characters are good enough to keep the film moving, but not enough to really care about any of them. Procedure largely rules over the film that is in dire need of more creativity, but when it tries to veer out for a twist at the end of the movie, I’ve already stopped caring about the majority of the characters in the film and so the impact just isn’t there.
Video
Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the transfer works fairly well as the contrast, colors and image stay clean throughout the film but lacks a consistent crispness that it sometimes dabbles with. Though some scenes look good, others seem a little more washed out when there’s no apparent stylistic purpose.
Audio
The English Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mix sounds good on screen, the ambient noises come through well and help to set the tone of the film. The soundtrack itself helps to promote the mood of the film even when the directing seems to be going in a different direction. Overall a clean transfer of the sound that brings out one of the better parts of the film. Optional subtitles are available in English and Spanish.
Extras
The single disc is fairly bare of special features including only a making-of featurette, a deleted scene, a theatrical trailer and bonus trailers. “The Making of Anamorph” runs for 5 minutes and 59 seconds. This featurette feels more like a between-the-movies commercial made for IFC, talking with writer/director H.S. Miller, Willem Dafoe, and other involved in the film; they talk about the plot of the film and the idea of anamorphosis. It’s a fairly generic featurette that is mostly descriptive about the film and the actors, even though it has a fair amount of behind-the-scenes material for its runtime; it’s far too brief to really get in to any of the details of the film. The deleted scene, listed as “Deleted Scene” in the menu, runs for 1 minute and 51 seconds. Stan goes through a museum and looks at some paintings meticulously and bumps into a student. Finally is the theatrical trailer for "Anamorph" which runs for 1 minute and 16 seconds. Start-up bonus trailers on the disc are: - “Paranoid Park” runs for 2 minutes and 13 seconds. - “Savage Grace” runs for 2 minutes and 9 seconds. - “How to Rob a Bank” runs for 1 minute and 16 seconds.
Overall
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