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Audrey Hepburn Story, The
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
Jennifer Love Hewitt has certainly made some interesting choices lately. Rising to popularity on TV's "Party Of Five", she took the lead role in "I Know What You Did Last Summer", and then took a minor misstep in "Can't Hardly Wait", an otherwise entertaining film that simply didn't do well. That set the scene though, for a serious fault with the silly sequel to "I Know What You Did Last Summer". Instead of choosing to take a more adult film role to bring things back to normal, she's chosen a more adult TV role. Wouldn't have been my choice, but a star I'm definitely not, so what do I know?
People were more than a little miffed when they heard that Hewitt would be taking on the role of Audrey Hepburn. Suprisingly, I found her to be very pleasing in the role. Take away what you know, what you've heard about the star, and on-screen she has a sweetness and warmth about her that makes her more natural for comedy or drama than running around being stalked in some horror series(although the first "I Know What You..." wasn't too bad). Maybe she wasn't exactly right for this role, and probably it won't be what gets her career back on the right track, but she does give it her best try.
It's unfortunate that she's almost upstaged by a younger version of herself. In the scenes that she's in as young Audrey, Emily Rossum gives a wonderful little performance that is impressive. The film starts off with Hepburn on the set of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" , and then goes backwards from there, providing the viewer with flashbacks of Audrey's life from childhood in Nazi-occupied Holland onwards.
The film tries to do a lot and cover a lot in a couple of hours, where maybe a miniseries might have afforded more time to give events more detail, but still, I liked what was covered. Hewitt is not perfect for the role, but she generally does try her best. Again, Emily Rossum gives a really solid performance as young Audrey. It may not be accurate, but on its own, "The Audrey Hepburn Story" is a fairly entertaining and well-acted offering.
The DVD
VIDEO: Although this was originally a television presentation, Tristar has been able to present the picture anamorphic (it's letterboxed at about 1.85:1), and results are tremendously good. The picture is a little soft at times, and that's by intention. But this is generally a very beautiful-looking production and it translates very well to this transfer. Usually, the transfer looks very nicely sharp, and detail is good, although sometimes better than others - even night or dimly lit sequences are nicely rendered. Colors are beautiful, looking pleasingly natural and rich, with no problems at all to speak of.
I saw no instances of pixelation or shimmering, and the print used is in excellent condition, with no marks or scratches. When the image quality really looks excellent, it's very impressive with solid depth to the image. This is excellent treatment from Tristar, and it looks almost perfect.
SOUND: As expected from a TV soundtrack, this is a very basic presentation that does generally do a fine job with the two things involved - a light musical score and dialogue; everything comes from the front, and generally sounds good. Surround use is pretty subtle, but generally enjoyable and enough - not overly done, not lacking. The musical score sounds richly detailed and warm for a very pleasant background to the proceedings. This is still a basic TV presentation, but in the realm of TV presentations, this is very good.
MENUS:: Although Tristar's menus are usually non-animated, they are visually pleasing and nicely laid out. These are easily navigated as usual, but somewhat on the bland side.
EXTRAS: Trailers for Can't Hardly Wait(Dolby Digital 5.1), as well as "The Audrey Hepburn Story" and "The Suburbans". The usual talent files also make an appearance.
Final Thoughts: A few little things, such as a few slow spots take away from the film, but overall, it actually wasn't too bad. Hewitt is fairly good in the role, and I found myself basically entertained. Tristar's DVD is quite good in regards to audio and video quality, but an extra extra or two would have been nice - something beyond the usual trailers and bios.
Jennifer Love Hewitt has certainly made some interesting choices lately. Rising to popularity on TV's "Party Of Five", she took the lead role in "I Know What You Did Last Summer", and then took a minor misstep in "Can't Hardly Wait", an otherwise entertaining film that simply didn't do well. That set the scene though, for a serious fault with the silly sequel to "I Know What You Did Last Summer". Instead of choosing to take a more adult film role to bring things back to normal, she's chosen a more adult TV role. Wouldn't have been my choice, but a star I'm definitely not, so what do I know?
People were more than a little miffed when they heard that Hewitt would be taking on the role of Audrey Hepburn. Suprisingly, I found her to be very pleasing in the role. Take away what you know, what you've heard about the star, and on-screen she has a sweetness and warmth about her that makes her more natural for comedy or drama than running around being stalked in some horror series(although the first "I Know What You..." wasn't too bad). Maybe she wasn't exactly right for this role, and probably it won't be what gets her career back on the right track, but she does give it her best try.
It's unfortunate that she's almost upstaged by a younger version of herself. In the scenes that she's in as young Audrey, Emily Rossum gives a wonderful little performance that is impressive. The film starts off with Hepburn on the set of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" , and then goes backwards from there, providing the viewer with flashbacks of Audrey's life from childhood in Nazi-occupied Holland onwards.
The film tries to do a lot and cover a lot in a couple of hours, where maybe a miniseries might have afforded more time to give events more detail, but still, I liked what was covered. Hewitt is not perfect for the role, but she generally does try her best. Again, Emily Rossum gives a really solid performance as young Audrey. It may not be accurate, but on its own, "The Audrey Hepburn Story" is a fairly entertaining and well-acted offering.
The DVD
VIDEO: Although this was originally a television presentation, Tristar has been able to present the picture anamorphic (it's letterboxed at about 1.85:1), and results are tremendously good. The picture is a little soft at times, and that's by intention. But this is generally a very beautiful-looking production and it translates very well to this transfer. Usually, the transfer looks very nicely sharp, and detail is good, although sometimes better than others - even night or dimly lit sequences are nicely rendered. Colors are beautiful, looking pleasingly natural and rich, with no problems at all to speak of.
I saw no instances of pixelation or shimmering, and the print used is in excellent condition, with no marks or scratches. When the image quality really looks excellent, it's very impressive with solid depth to the image. This is excellent treatment from Tristar, and it looks almost perfect.
SOUND: As expected from a TV soundtrack, this is a very basic presentation that does generally do a fine job with the two things involved - a light musical score and dialogue; everything comes from the front, and generally sounds good. Surround use is pretty subtle, but generally enjoyable and enough - not overly done, not lacking. The musical score sounds richly detailed and warm for a very pleasant background to the proceedings. This is still a basic TV presentation, but in the realm of TV presentations, this is very good.
MENUS:: Although Tristar's menus are usually non-animated, they are visually pleasing and nicely laid out. These are easily navigated as usual, but somewhat on the bland side.
EXTRAS: Trailers for Can't Hardly Wait(Dolby Digital 5.1), as well as "The Audrey Hepburn Story" and "The Suburbans". The usual talent files also make an appearance.
Final Thoughts: A few little things, such as a few slow spots take away from the film, but overall, it actually wasn't too bad. Hewitt is fairly good in the role, and I found myself basically entertained. Tristar's DVD is quite good in regards to audio and video quality, but an extra extra or two would have been nice - something beyond the usual trailers and bios.
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