Picture Claire
, the 2001
Canadian film from director Bruce McDonald, is a dark, noir-drenched tale that
spends 90 minutes going through the motions without generating much in terms of
genuine thrills. A stylistic exercise in search of focus, the film is somewhat
reprieved by some fine performances by its lead actors but is ultimately
hampered by wooden direction and a ho-hum
script.
Claire, a police informant, (Juliette Lewis)
is in a bit of a pickle. The French-Canadian siren is homeless after a group of
thugs torch her Montreal apartment. In desperation, and
remembering a promise made to her by boyfriend Billy (Kelly Harms), she makes
her way over to Toronto to meet up with him. Billy, a would-be
artist of questionable talent, is nowhere to be found, so she combs the city
searching for him. Meanwhile, a diamond smuggler named Lily (played by the
ferociously lovely, talented, and eminently watchable Gina Gershon), who lives
in Billy's building and has a somewhat passing resemblance to Claire, meets her
contact Eddie (Mickey Rourke, in little more than a cameo) at a downstairs cafe.
Naturally there's a double-cross, and Lily murders Eddie right at the table. The
elderly proprietor finds Eddie's corpse, and immediately assumes it was Claire
who did the dirty deed, and describes her to the police investigating the
crime.
Meanwhile, Claire has discovered that Eddie has
used a bunch of candid photographs of her in his latest exhibit, and she's none
too pleased about that. Compounding her anger is the discovery that he has
a new British girlfriend and has apparently forgotten entirely about Claire. Or
so it seems. Meanwhile, two thuggish associates of Eddie, including a rather
loquacious arm-breaker named Laramie, are in search of Lily in order to
retrieve their diamonds. The police are after Claire to bring her in on murder
charges. Lily is in search of Claire when the diamonds inadvertently end up in
Claire's possession. And Claire is looking for Billy, and she's
pissed.
I'd like to see it made for an entirely
entertaining picture, but Picture
Claire is your basic exercise in average,
uninspired filmmaking. My plot synopsis makes the film more interesting than it
seems; the entire story seems like a pointless exercise in setup and resolution
without any real dramatic weight. I didn't care about any of these characters,
nor was I caught up in any general feeling of suspense or excitement. The film
did move at a pretty rapid clip, and I did enjoy the acting: Juliette Lewis and
Gina Gershon are both impressive, delivering strong, believable performances.
Yet in the end they were hamstrung by uninspired material, and the result is a
movie that lies stillborn on the screen when it should pop with intensity.
Alas.
The DVD
Video:
Picture Claire is
presented in a fullframe aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The transfer seems
extraordinarily cropped and tightly boxed, but as of this writing I cannot
confirm whether or not this is the original aspect ratio, an open-matte
transfer, or a pan-and-scan butchering. The quality is satisfactory: nothing
extraordinary, but nothing heinous either. Colors are stable, contrasts are well
handled, and compression noise is minimal. Only some notable image softness
and recession in darker scenes keep this transfer from being anything more than
average.
Audio:
The audio is presented in a Dolby Digital 2.0
soundtrack. The delivery is, again, quite satisfactory. Dialog is sharp and
demonstrates clarity, with some depth and dynamic range to the soundtrack and
pulsing LFE activity. There is noticeable separation in the front, but only
limited use of surround channels. Overall, this is a decent
soundtrack.
Extras:
The
only extra feature is the film's trailer.
Final
Thoughts
Picture
Claire is an average, uninspiring film that will most likely find its
niche on late-night, non-premium cable television. Some fine acting and
stylistic overkill cannot overcome a questionable script. The DVD itself is no
great shakes, either. The transfer is acceptable, the soundtrack satisfactory,
and the extras - save for a trailer - are non-existent. In other words, you can
feel safe giving this DVD the good old El Paso.
Buy: