Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Lionsgate Movie ••½ Picture/Sound •••½ Extras •••

Lady Windermere's Fan, Oscar Wilde's play about gold-digging gals and scandalous sex, gets renamed and relocated from late 19th-century England to 1930s Italy. The leading ladies (Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson, both playing Americans) are game enough and nice to look at, but director Mike Barker's movie never quite captures the verve or the rhythms of Wilde's writing. The Amalfi coast looks lush and lovely, with good tonal balance across a wide color palette. The transfer even manages to reproduce Johansson's otherworldly red lipstick without oversaturation or blooming - no small feat. Sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1, but don't expect to hear much beyond the front channels. The only extra of note is a commentary by Barker and producer Alan Greenspan. The director is clearly a big fan of Wilde, so it's odd that he couldn't inject more life into this movie. [PG] English, Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Surround; letterboxed (1.78:1) and anamorphic widescreen; dual layer.

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