The Lovers - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Lovers


Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
I don’t think there is a married couple alive who will tell you that their life together has been unmitigated bliss. That lethargy and staleness can creep into a marriage more insidiously than anger and frustration. When you realize you’re not nearly so close as you thought you were it’s usually almost too late, but it’s not always TOO late in every circumstance. Some of the most painful portions of a marriage are when you realize your spouse is cheating on your. I’m not too proud to say that I have not always been the most perfect of people, and that moment of desperation and justification can creep up on anyone. What makes it worse when you are the person cheating in the relationship. No matter the justification, no matter the twisted lies we tell ourselves, it is a cancer that gnaws at your bones and eats at the core of your being until the day you die. HOWEVER, not all mistakes are fatal ones. It’s not common, but those who are strong, and those who have a will to survive can sometimes create healing out of agonizing and humiliating pain.

The film opens with Michael (Tracy Letts) apologizing profusely to a woman named Lucy (Melora Waters) in what seems to be a heartfelt goodbye between spouses. However, it only takes a few minutes of watching to realize that Michael and Lucy are having an affair. She’s a bit on the dramatic side (as he professes during an argument between her and him), but Michael’s wife Mary (Debra Winger) is ALSO having her own affair with artist Robert (Aiden Gillen). The two have come to a point in their marriage where everything is devoid of meaning. The two call each other honey and sweetie, but all the love and emotion is sapped from the experience, leaving nothing but stale repetition in it’s wake. Each one of the two is being pulled by their respective lovers to end the relationship, but there seems to be something holding them back from going through with the deal.

Michael and Mary’s son is coming for a visit in the coming week, and each one is determined to tell the other person when the visitation is over, but soon things start to get complicated. The surety and calm that was present during the decision to leave the other fades to something new as the tired old couple starts to fall for something they never thought they would fall for. Each other. A passion that was supposedly dead and buried begins to emerge the closer and closer the two come to their agreed upon “tell the other” date, and soon a passionate affair begins, between the two married spouses, rekindling a love that they thought had burned out year ago.

Director Azazel Jacobs crafts an intriguing film based upon a fascinating turn of events. What happens when two people who fall out of love and into other people’s arms start to fall BACK in love with each other. It’s a complex statement, and a fairly complex drama at that. The confusion and delicacy at which the two start to fall BACK into love is rather fascinating to watch. You don’t have to agree with their infidelity (I certainly don’t in any way, shape, or fomr) to be intrigued by the idea of two dead lovers rekindling the passion that once made them a power couple. Michael and Mary make an attractive pair, each one hesitantly trying to make sense of their decision to leave. Then trying to make sense of that inexorable pull to rebuild what has been lost. Both Debra and Tracy are equally compelling, giving heartfelt and awkwardly passionate performances in the film.

It’s not until the third act that I started to have problems with the movie. The first two acts are sweet and hope filled, as we watch the two torn couples come to the obvious conclusion that they’re STILL in love with each other. However, it’s the final 20 minutes of the movie that Azazel has a hard time wrapping up. You can tell the obvious conclusion from the beginning of the movie, but once Mary and Michael’s son come to visit you can tell that he’s having a hard time figuring out a way to wrap this thing up cleanly without being cliched and overly cheesy. Azazel chooses a method of conclusion, but it doesn’t come across as actually pleasing to me personally. It feels as if he’s undone most of the lessons and realizations that have been made during the film, and romanticizes the idea of cheating, as long as it’s “cheating for a good cause”. Quite LITERALLY the last 10 minutes of the movie feel incredibly frustrating and negatory compared to all of the sweet progress that has been made during the rest of the film.




Rating:

Rated R for sexuality and language




Video:

The Lovers comes to Blu-ray with a very nice looking 1.85:1 AVC encoded transfer, captured with the Alexa digital camera system (as clued in by the end credits), which is more than up to making a good looking image. The fine detail is excellent, with strong blacks and a good looking color palette that tends to be a bit drab more often than not. There are certain shots that garner a sense of brilliance and well saturation of colors, but those shots are few and far between as the film seems content to bathe itself in the grey and dull tones that Azazel Jacobs seems to want for the movie. This leads to little that truly “pops” off the screen, but leaves enough competence to be a pleasing experience. There’s some good looking black levels, but also some banding, and other than that flaw, the disc looks to be mainly artifact free.
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Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is on par with the video, promising solid immersion and technically competent sound design, but never expanding past that moray. Vocals and dialog are cleanly replicated in the center of the sound stage, and the minimal surround usage with the city landscape is enough to keep the track from feeling like a true 3.1 experience. The LFE is mainly relegated to complimenting the score, while the rest of the track is content to live in the two mains and center channel. There’s nothing WRONG with The Lovers, it’s just a dramatic track that thrives off of the simplicity of a dialog driven experience.






Extras:

• Commentary with Director Azazel Jacobs
• The Music of Romance: Scoring The Lovers
• A Complicated Passion: Making The Lovers

Final Score: ​

The Lovers had an awkward premise, but a surprisingly sweet execution for 90% of the film. I really REALLY enjoyed the back and forth game between the old married couple up until the last 15-20 minutes of the movie. It’s there that it loses much of the goodwill that has been gained in the awkward time. There is some truly sweet and giggle worthy moments in the film (there’s a brief moment where the married couple wakes up nose to nose and sleepily give each other a good morning kiss out of habit that brought a smile to my face), and it’s really only the ending that pulls the movie back down from excellence. The direction had a great start, but the last ½ of the last act left me seriously frustrated in what could have been a truly good movie about a painful subject. As is, it’s a solid watch, but one I would give a few warnings on due to the last few plot changes in the latter act of the movie. The audio and video are very solid for the Blu-ray’s genre, and the extras are slim, but certainly serviceable. Recommended as a decent watch.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Debra Winger, Tracy Letts, Aiden Gillen
Directed by: Azazel Jacobs
Written by: Azazel Jacobs
Aspect Ratio: 1.85.1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: R
Runtime: 98 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 1st, 2017

Image

• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Decent Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I will add this to my watch list..