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Tangled
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment // R // January 14, 2003
List Price: $29.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
College student Jenny Kelley (Rachael Leigh Cook) is trapped in a love triangle. On one side is stereotypical nice guy David Klein (Shawn Hatosy). They've palled around for a couple of years, gabbing about T.S. Elliot and coming perilously close to something romantic, though Dave's too timid to make anything approximating a move. Rounding out the 180° of Love is Alan Hammond (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), an unpredictable, womanizing drop-out that used to share a room with David. Alan's decided to take another stab at college and squirms back into David's life. He quickly wins over Jenny, which puts a serious strain on the lovers' friendship with David. Sounds like the latest cookie-cutter teen flick churned out by the Hollywood Mediocrity Factory, right? Well, one notable difference is that Tangled kicks off with a bruised and battered David in the hospital. Claiming to an investigator (Lorraine Bracco) that his thoughts are a little rattled after being kidnapped, David provides the movie's framing device through a series of flashbacks. As David spins his tale, the limited information we're given in the beginning is slowly fleshed out. David talks about how he and Jenny first met, the tumultuous relationship between the three of them after Alan and Jenny got involved, Alan's unstable behavior, and basically why his broken body is in a hospital and his two friends are missing.
Despite the genre most video stores would lump it under, Tangled is a thriller without much in the way of thrills. The title suggests that Tangled features numerous hairpin twists and turns in the plot, but the sorts of plot twists that made movies like Wild Things and Malice mildly memorable are wholly absent. There aren't really any significant twists until the movie's final moments, and the previous lack of any such twists coupled with some heavy-handed dialogue from the cops make the :gasp!: shocking surprise seem much more predictable than it would have otherwise. What thrills are to be had are low-key (no cars teeter perilously from any cliffs or anything), and the more action-oriented sequences are brief and sporadic. That seems to be the point, though. Tangled puts its emphasis on its characters, though unfortunately, they're not all that compelling either. Though Tangled is unlikely to have viewers perched on the edges of their seats, some of the lighter moments are handled pretty well. Any movie with an overt Teen Wolf reference (well, unless it's Teen Wolf Too) can't be all bad, and a Bell Biv DeVoe singalong is certain to have the movie's twentysomething target audience rattling off lyrics they haven't heard since 1990.
Aside from giving Tangled a recognizable face to plaster across the cover art, Rachael Leigh Cook also provides the movie's requisite eye candy. When she's first introduced, Jenny's parading around an apartment in her skivvies, and there's a scene after a dismal date where she stripteases for a voyeuristic David. With the male demographic thusly covered, the producers turned to Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (Velvet Goldmine) to tackle the fairer sex. Rhys-Meyers offers up a couple of buffalo shots, exposing a...errr...little more of himself than I'd typically care to see. Just as I'm reluctant to classify Tangled as a 'thriller', I wouldn't label it an 'erotic thriller' either, at least not in the Cinemax After Dark sense of the term. Aside from some brief titillation and strictly-PG dry humping, Tangled is pretty tame in that department.
The cast does the best they can with the well-trodden material, which was churned out by three relatively inexperienced writers. Of the three, only Shawn Simons had a previous writing credit to his name: a short German thriller also titled Tangled. I can't find a plot summary of the short on the web, but if it is the same basic premise, I'd imagine it works better in the space of thirteen minutes than eighty seven.
Tangled isn't a bad movie. It's a decent thriller, the performances are pretty good, and I never found myself sighing or staring longingly at the clock on the wall. The problem is that it's not a particularly good movie either, and considering how many thousands of DVDs there are on store shelves, Tangled is too unremarkable to stand out above the rest. It's firmly entrenched in "okay" territory. I'd even go so far as to say that I liked Tangled, but it's nothing I'd pay more than a couple of bucks to see, and I didn't get the impression that it would weather repeat viewings all that well either. I wouldn't recommend Tangled as anything more than a rental, especially considering the dearth of supplemental material on this overpriced DVD release.
Video: Tangled's 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen image is razor-sharp and nicely detailed. Black levels are deep and inky, and the vivid palette appears to be spot-on. Some light film grain is frequently visible. Its presence in the hospital scenes appears to be intentional, giving the image an appropriately gritty look. It was also noticeable in some of the daytime exteriors, such as the introduction of David's kite metaphor around thirty-five minutes in, but the level didn't strike me as intrusive or particularly unnatural. A fleck or two will pop up intermittently, but again, hardly to the point of distraction. Edge haloes also manage to creep in. Any concerns along these lines are fairly minor, and the presentation as a whole is very nice.
Audio: Unlike some overseas releases of Tangled, this DVD sports a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. As the movie is driven by its dialogue, this isn't the most bombastic mix to grace a shiny five-inch disc. The rears tends to be on the subtle side, and they seemed to be most noticeable when reinforcing the music scattered throughout the length of the movie. There are several effective uses of the surround channels, such as glass breaking around 1:23:58 and the way the music kicks in when Alan crawls onto the roof of a moving car. I can't entirely shake the feeling that Tangled sounds as if it was originally mixed with plain-jane stereo in mind, though. The lower frequencies also come into play primarily from music. Gunshots, dramatic stings, and some of the booming flashback transitions are also accompanied by a respectable low-end punch.
The six-channel English audio is the only track available for this release. English subtitles and closed captions have also been provided.
Supplements: There are no extras directly related to Tangled on this disc. As seems to be standard practice for Dimension and Miramax, there are previews for other releases, but not a trailer for the actual movie featured on the DVD. Along with the usual two-minute "Dimension Cutting Edge Films" promo are full-frame trailers for Birthday Girl, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, and The Faculty. None of the meager extras included on the British release -- a trailer, production notes, biographies, and a still gallery -- are provided here.
The static 16x9-enhanced menus are centered around still shots of the cast. Tangled has been divided into sixteen chapters.
Conclusion: Tangled was savaged pretty mercilessly by the handful of critics that bothered to review it. I kind of liked the movie, and if it popped up on a Thursday night on HBO's digital cable dumping ground, I'd probably recommend taking the time to see it. Recommending this disc as a purchase is another matter entirely. Buena Vista has slapped this featureless DVD with a hefty $29.99 price tag, which is about as close to priced-for-rental as the mainstream studios get. Fans of the talent involved will probably want to stick with a rental or wait for the inevitable price drop a few months down the road. Rent It.
Related Links:Although the DVD doesn't include one, Myriad Pictures (Van Wilder, The Good Girl) has a trailer on their Tangled site. I'd also feel guilty if I made it through this review without pointing Rachael Leigh Cook fans to the comprehensive rachaelleighcook.net.
Despite the genre most video stores would lump it under, Tangled is a thriller without much in the way of thrills. The title suggests that Tangled features numerous hairpin twists and turns in the plot, but the sorts of plot twists that made movies like Wild Things and Malice mildly memorable are wholly absent. There aren't really any significant twists until the movie's final moments, and the previous lack of any such twists coupled with some heavy-handed dialogue from the cops make the :gasp!: shocking surprise seem much more predictable than it would have otherwise. What thrills are to be had are low-key (no cars teeter perilously from any cliffs or anything), and the more action-oriented sequences are brief and sporadic. That seems to be the point, though. Tangled puts its emphasis on its characters, though unfortunately, they're not all that compelling either. Though Tangled is unlikely to have viewers perched on the edges of their seats, some of the lighter moments are handled pretty well. Any movie with an overt Teen Wolf reference (well, unless it's Teen Wolf Too) can't be all bad, and a Bell Biv DeVoe singalong is certain to have the movie's twentysomething target audience rattling off lyrics they haven't heard since 1990.
Aside from giving Tangled a recognizable face to plaster across the cover art, Rachael Leigh Cook also provides the movie's requisite eye candy. When she's first introduced, Jenny's parading around an apartment in her skivvies, and there's a scene after a dismal date where she stripteases for a voyeuristic David. With the male demographic thusly covered, the producers turned to Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (Velvet Goldmine) to tackle the fairer sex. Rhys-Meyers offers up a couple of buffalo shots, exposing a...errr...little more of himself than I'd typically care to see. Just as I'm reluctant to classify Tangled as a 'thriller', I wouldn't label it an 'erotic thriller' either, at least not in the Cinemax After Dark sense of the term. Aside from some brief titillation and strictly-PG dry humping, Tangled is pretty tame in that department.
The cast does the best they can with the well-trodden material, which was churned out by three relatively inexperienced writers. Of the three, only Shawn Simons had a previous writing credit to his name: a short German thriller also titled Tangled. I can't find a plot summary of the short on the web, but if it is the same basic premise, I'd imagine it works better in the space of thirteen minutes than eighty seven.
Tangled isn't a bad movie. It's a decent thriller, the performances are pretty good, and I never found myself sighing or staring longingly at the clock on the wall. The problem is that it's not a particularly good movie either, and considering how many thousands of DVDs there are on store shelves, Tangled is too unremarkable to stand out above the rest. It's firmly entrenched in "okay" territory. I'd even go so far as to say that I liked Tangled, but it's nothing I'd pay more than a couple of bucks to see, and I didn't get the impression that it would weather repeat viewings all that well either. I wouldn't recommend Tangled as anything more than a rental, especially considering the dearth of supplemental material on this overpriced DVD release.
Video: Tangled's 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen image is razor-sharp and nicely detailed. Black levels are deep and inky, and the vivid palette appears to be spot-on. Some light film grain is frequently visible. Its presence in the hospital scenes appears to be intentional, giving the image an appropriately gritty look. It was also noticeable in some of the daytime exteriors, such as the introduction of David's kite metaphor around thirty-five minutes in, but the level didn't strike me as intrusive or particularly unnatural. A fleck or two will pop up intermittently, but again, hardly to the point of distraction. Edge haloes also manage to creep in. Any concerns along these lines are fairly minor, and the presentation as a whole is very nice.
Audio: Unlike some overseas releases of Tangled, this DVD sports a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. As the movie is driven by its dialogue, this isn't the most bombastic mix to grace a shiny five-inch disc. The rears tends to be on the subtle side, and they seemed to be most noticeable when reinforcing the music scattered throughout the length of the movie. There are several effective uses of the surround channels, such as glass breaking around 1:23:58 and the way the music kicks in when Alan crawls onto the roof of a moving car. I can't entirely shake the feeling that Tangled sounds as if it was originally mixed with plain-jane stereo in mind, though. The lower frequencies also come into play primarily from music. Gunshots, dramatic stings, and some of the booming flashback transitions are also accompanied by a respectable low-end punch.
The six-channel English audio is the only track available for this release. English subtitles and closed captions have also been provided.
Supplements: There are no extras directly related to Tangled on this disc. As seems to be standard practice for Dimension and Miramax, there are previews for other releases, but not a trailer for the actual movie featured on the DVD. Along with the usual two-minute "Dimension Cutting Edge Films" promo are full-frame trailers for Birthday Girl, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, and The Faculty. None of the meager extras included on the British release -- a trailer, production notes, biographies, and a still gallery -- are provided here.
The static 16x9-enhanced menus are centered around still shots of the cast. Tangled has been divided into sixteen chapters.
Conclusion: Tangled was savaged pretty mercilessly by the handful of critics that bothered to review it. I kind of liked the movie, and if it popped up on a Thursday night on HBO's digital cable dumping ground, I'd probably recommend taking the time to see it. Recommending this disc as a purchase is another matter entirely. Buena Vista has slapped this featureless DVD with a hefty $29.99 price tag, which is about as close to priced-for-rental as the mainstream studios get. Fans of the talent involved will probably want to stick with a rental or wait for the inevitable price drop a few months down the road. Rent It.
Related Links:Although the DVD doesn't include one, Myriad Pictures (Van Wilder, The Good Girl) has a trailer on their Tangled site. I'd also feel guilty if I made it through this review without pointing Rachael Leigh Cook fans to the comprehensive rachaelleighcook.net.
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