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Head in the Clouds
Columbia/Tri-Star // R // January 25, 2005
List Price: $24.96 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
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| You might start to pick up on a theme in the pictures throughout this review. |
Years pass. Guy's toiling away as a teacher, spending his free time in a seemingly passionateless relationship and drumming up support for Republican Spain during the tumult there. He hasn't seen or spoken to Gilda in quite some time, but he unexpectedly spots her in a schlocky gladiator movie and receives an invitation to come visit in Paris almost immediately afterwards. Hearing Gilda bang her man of the moment through the paper-thin Parisian walls sends a frustrated Guy running back home to Britain, but before he leaves, he meets her friend Mia (Penelope Cruz), a gimpy model who dreams of returning to her native Spain and serving as a nurse in the ongoing conflict. This synopsis is getting unnecessarily long, so I'll try to fast-forward through the rest. Guy and Gilda meet up yet again, they set up shop in Paris, and, with Mia in tow, they spend a blissfully happy year together. Mia and Guy continue to feel obligated to contribute what they can to the effort in Spain, and eventually they stop talking about it and actually leave. Gilda feels betrayed, unable to understand why they'd abandon happiness in favor of near-certain death.
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| If the camera panned down a bit, you'd see Stuart Townsend somewhere around there. |
As excruciatingly long as that summary was...? Sitting through Head in the Clouds is kind of like that too. An incredible amount of time and effort seems to have been invested in recreating the 1930s, but the costuming and set design are the only elements of the film that even approach being Oscar-caliber. If nearly as much attention had been lavished upon the screenplay (penned by John Duigan, who also directed), this may have been a considerably more positive review. I have a hard time getting lost in a movie where the dialogue sounds so distinctly like actors reciting lines from a screenplay. Yes, I'm well-aware that's how films are typically made, but so much of the dialogue, particularly in the first half of the movie, has an overly artificial quality that draws attention to its scripted origins. The fact that the dialogue's really not that great doesn't help matters much either. The movie itself is far too long, with too many similar situations hammering the same points over and over again relentlessly.
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| Gilda in her BIRTHDAY SUIT! Get it, because she's naked, and it's her boyfriend's birthday? Yeah, it's not funny in the movie either. |
Lesbianism, Nazis, and a frequently topless Charlize Theron sound like a winning combination, and in someone else's hands, perhaps they would have been. Head in the Clouds is a melodramatic mess -- the type of unmemorable movie I might watch with total disinterest on HBO, one that's not good enough for me to bother recommending, but not so painful as to have me fumbling for my remote in a panic. I'm enamored enough with Charlize Theron that she buoyed the lackluster material to at least be watchable, and readers who are similarly smitten might find Head in the Clouds worth a rental. Otherwise, unless you're a Merchant/Ivory addict in search of some cinematic methadone to ease the pain, I wouldn't bother.
Video: Its visuals are one of the only particularly redeeming aspects of Head in the Clouds, so it's to the movie's benefit that this DVD sports an above-average 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation. Detail is often impressive, particularly in the bleaker second half of the film, and colors are nicely saturated throughout. No blatant filtering or particularly intrusive edge haloes were spotted, and since this is such a recent production, the source material is not surprisingly free of any wear or speckling. Audio: The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio (448Kbps) is also a notch or two above average. Every speaker buzzes with activity whenever the opportunity presents itself, particularly in the large metropolitan exteriors and some of the more bustling interior scenes. Just because of the type of film this is, there isn't an overabundance of subwoofer activity, but the movie's syrupy strings maintain a strong presence throughout, and the occasionally explosive wartime footage sounds great. Dialogue is an obvious emphasis, and it comes through clearly without any concerns.
The only other audio options are English subtitles and closed captions. Supplements: Skimming through a few online DVD retailers, they list Head in the Clouds as having a set of deleted scenes, an audio commentary by director John Duigan, and a second commentary pairing stars Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend. For whatever reason, none of those are offered as part of the final product.
There are a couple of extras, but literally just a couple, such as a standard issue "making of" featurette that runs a little over nine minutes in length. Also included is a sizeable trailer gallery that features, among others, an anamorphic widescreen clip for Head in the Clouds. The DVD includes a set of static 16x9 menus, and although an insert is provided, it doesn't serve as a list of the movie's twenty-eight chapter stops.
Conclusion: Head in the Clouds is a wholly unremarkable and instantly forgettable melodrama. Particularly loyal fans of the cast may want to give this DVD a rental, but I wouldn't recommend it as a purchase, considering the general lack of extras and the fact that it's a plodding movie that doesn't really lend itself to repeat viewing. If you feel obligated to give this movie a look, Rent It.
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