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To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday
Columbia/Tri-Star // PG-13 // May 7, 2002
List Price: $24.95 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday presents a love story in the grand tradition of slightly-warmed-over Hollywood cliché: that is, in a fairly ordinary manner, with a reasonably interesting situation developing along predictable lines to a predictably you-are-supposed-to-feel-touched ending.
The reasonably interesting situation is this: David Lewis (Peter Gallagher) found true love in his wife Gillian (Michelle Pfeiffer). So much so, in fact, that two years after her tragic death, he can't get past his sense of loss. Gillian is still real to him... in a literal way; he can see her, talk to her, touch her. But his ongoing relationship with Gillian is slowly but surely pulling him away from his relationships with the living, and specifically with his daughter.
There's scope here for an interesting exploration of a number of themes: our society's cultural expectations about grief, for one thing. "What's the statue of limitations on loss?" David demands at one point, hitting on a key point in the film: where should we draw the line between healthy grief and unhealthy obsession? Or is the attempt to draw that line an artificial intrusion into private life and love? There's also the interesting presence of Gillian herself. Is she real, or is she a figment of David's imagination? Alas, any exploration of these themes is left entirely to the viewer's imagination.
If the film had focused on the relationship between David and his daughter Rachel, or on his personal exploration of the boundaries of grief, To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday could have been a quietly satisfying movie. If the film had done more with the question of the nature of Gillian's apparition, it would have moved the story into a slightly more supernatural realm, but one with some interesting questions of its own to explore.
What we actually get is a little bit of everything and not enough of anything satisfying. The relationship between David and Rachel doesn't get the screen time it needs, because there's a secondary storyline about Rachel and the typical teenaged angst she's going through; it looks like the writer felt the need to make the film socially relevant with a nod toward the pressures of sex and drinking. There's also a rather contrived plot about David's meddling in-laws and their ideas about what's healthy or unhealthy for Rachel; this portion of the story adds an artificial conflict into a story that should have been allowed to develop more subtly.
The film could have been rescued to a certain point by nice cinematography, but unfortunately this DVD edition doesn't lend itself to appreciating the director's art, as it's lamentably a pan-and-scan-only transfer.
Video
For this transfer, the film's original widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 has been cut down to a 1.33:1 pan-and-scan version; there is no widescreen option available. As it is, I consider having a pan-and-scan version on the flip side of a widescreen disc to be a waste of perfectly good disc space; having a disc with only a pan-and-scan version is a travesty unworthy of a reputable production company such as Columbia Tristar.
Indeed it's quite apparent that we're missing approximately 33% of the image in this transfer. The overall cinematography takes on a forced dullness, with the action in the center of the screen; dialogue scenes are claustrophobic, with the camera panning back and forth between faces, or with the speakers partially cut off at the edges of the screen. Along the same lines, scenes featuring what I imagine were intended to be sweeping views of the ocean or the coastline are rendered rather less than impressive by the sides of the image being lopped off. For that reason, I've given For Gillian on Her 37th Birthday almost the lowest video rating. Sure, there is an image on the screen: but in this DVD, we are seeing significantly, and artificially, less than what was shown in theaters. I consider this unacceptable.
In terms of the video quality of the 66% of the image that we do see, it's slightly on the good side of average. There's a moderate amount of noise, rendering the image a little bit blurry; contrast is good in bright scenes but not perfect in more dimly-lit ones.
Audio
To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday has a Dolby 5.0 soundtrack that's adequate but not exceptional. Dialogue is clear and clean, but there's really no sense of immersion coming from the sound experience as a whole. Many scenes feature ocean waves crashing on the shore, and others have large crowds, but in both instances the sound is focused in the front channels, with no surround effects to speak of.
Extras
This is almost a bare-bones disc, with only a trailer for the film included.
Final thoughts
Don't buy this DVD, even if you like the movie. Or, I should say, especially if you like this movie: vote with your wallet and send the message that it is not acceptable for a film to be released on DVD without the original aspect ratio included.
The reasonably interesting situation is this: David Lewis (Peter Gallagher) found true love in his wife Gillian (Michelle Pfeiffer). So much so, in fact, that two years after her tragic death, he can't get past his sense of loss. Gillian is still real to him... in a literal way; he can see her, talk to her, touch her. But his ongoing relationship with Gillian is slowly but surely pulling him away from his relationships with the living, and specifically with his daughter.
There's scope here for an interesting exploration of a number of themes: our society's cultural expectations about grief, for one thing. "What's the statue of limitations on loss?" David demands at one point, hitting on a key point in the film: where should we draw the line between healthy grief and unhealthy obsession? Or is the attempt to draw that line an artificial intrusion into private life and love? There's also the interesting presence of Gillian herself. Is she real, or is she a figment of David's imagination? Alas, any exploration of these themes is left entirely to the viewer's imagination.
If the film had focused on the relationship between David and his daughter Rachel, or on his personal exploration of the boundaries of grief, To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday could have been a quietly satisfying movie. If the film had done more with the question of the nature of Gillian's apparition, it would have moved the story into a slightly more supernatural realm, but one with some interesting questions of its own to explore.
What we actually get is a little bit of everything and not enough of anything satisfying. The relationship between David and Rachel doesn't get the screen time it needs, because there's a secondary storyline about Rachel and the typical teenaged angst she's going through; it looks like the writer felt the need to make the film socially relevant with a nod toward the pressures of sex and drinking. There's also a rather contrived plot about David's meddling in-laws and their ideas about what's healthy or unhealthy for Rachel; this portion of the story adds an artificial conflict into a story that should have been allowed to develop more subtly.
The film could have been rescued to a certain point by nice cinematography, but unfortunately this DVD edition doesn't lend itself to appreciating the director's art, as it's lamentably a pan-and-scan-only transfer.
Video
For this transfer, the film's original widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 has been cut down to a 1.33:1 pan-and-scan version; there is no widescreen option available. As it is, I consider having a pan-and-scan version on the flip side of a widescreen disc to be a waste of perfectly good disc space; having a disc with only a pan-and-scan version is a travesty unworthy of a reputable production company such as Columbia Tristar.
Indeed it's quite apparent that we're missing approximately 33% of the image in this transfer. The overall cinematography takes on a forced dullness, with the action in the center of the screen; dialogue scenes are claustrophobic, with the camera panning back and forth between faces, or with the speakers partially cut off at the edges of the screen. Along the same lines, scenes featuring what I imagine were intended to be sweeping views of the ocean or the coastline are rendered rather less than impressive by the sides of the image being lopped off. For that reason, I've given For Gillian on Her 37th Birthday almost the lowest video rating. Sure, there is an image on the screen: but in this DVD, we are seeing significantly, and artificially, less than what was shown in theaters. I consider this unacceptable.
In terms of the video quality of the 66% of the image that we do see, it's slightly on the good side of average. There's a moderate amount of noise, rendering the image a little bit blurry; contrast is good in bright scenes but not perfect in more dimly-lit ones.
Audio
To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday has a Dolby 5.0 soundtrack that's adequate but not exceptional. Dialogue is clear and clean, but there's really no sense of immersion coming from the sound experience as a whole. Many scenes feature ocean waves crashing on the shore, and others have large crowds, but in both instances the sound is focused in the front channels, with no surround effects to speak of.
Extras
This is almost a bare-bones disc, with only a trailer for the film included.
Final thoughts
Don't buy this DVD, even if you like the movie. Or, I should say, especially if you like this movie: vote with your wallet and send the message that it is not acceptable for a film to be released on DVD without the original aspect ratio included.
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