HTF REVIEW: "The Good Girl" (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RENTAL) (with screenshots) (1 Viewer)

[Martin Fontaine]

Anyone had any problems with this disk?

At about 57 Minutes, when Justine meets Phil in the bathroom at the fertility clinic
there was an audio drop out/short freeze... Thought it was a layer change but it's single layer. Rewound for a few seconds, and when it reached the same spot it froze again, then went back a few minutes! My only way to continue watching the movie was to manually set the time right after that spot.

Then, at around 1:17 when she is driving to work and thinking at the traffic light what to do
it froze again, trying to set the time right after, it keeps freezing.

I took the disk out, looked at it carefully and it's not dirty, I wiped it to be certain. Played it again, and now, even the menu animation has problems!

I had to watch the rest on the wrong side of the disk (Which works fine except for the fact that the picture is cut-off on the sides)

I put another disk in (Kissing Jessica Stein) and played a few minutes and it worked fine so it's not my player.

Also strange, on the center rim, the Widescreen side is the one where "Fool Screen" is facing up and the wrong side is when "Widescreen" is facing up. That seemed odd? I flipped the disk right away as soon as I saw the message warning me that the disk was inserted on the wrong side.

Is it a defective disk?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Probably defective. I'd exchange it.

 

[Robert_eb]

Who is the singer after the store manager annouces that Gwen has passed away and he puts in a cassette of a female singer and announces "Gwen, this one is for you".

 

[Jason Whyte]

Also strange, on the center rim, the Widescreen side is the one where "Fool Screen" is facing up and the wrong side is when "Widescreen" is facing up. That seemed odd? I flipped the disk right away as soon as I saw the message warning me that the disk was inserted on the wrong side.

I had the same problem. If anyone ever does run this disc, make sure you run the pan-and-scan side. You'll be in for a little surprise.
As for the transfer, there are some areas of concern (especially in regards to the greyish patches on dark scenes). There was a heavy-set of film grain theatrically as this was filmed on a lower budget. It's an acceptable representation of the 35mm release prints, but nothing to demo your HT with.
Jason

 

[Leif Wall]

The dark scenes were really distracting. Almost like I was watching VHS. Not like I was expecing The Fifth Element (SuperBit).
the good girl
the bad transfer

Probably just indicative of the source, like Jason just pointed out.

 

[Robert_eb]

Does anyone know what is the song and who is the artist played when the store manager annouces that Gwen has passed away and he puts in a cassette of a female singer and announces "Gwen, this one is for you"?

 

[Andrew Loschin]

While I haven't taken a look at the DVD myself yet, I do know for a fact that the film was shot to give it a distinctive look because I was the assistant editor on the film and it worked on it for close to a year. It was shot using a technique called "pushing the film" where you shoot one ASA of film but light/expose and process for another ASA of film. In this film's case it was shot with 320 ASA film and "pushed" 2 stops, basically making it around 1000 ASA film. The look was definitely intended, especially the grain and milky blacks which looked very good on film. This technique made the color really look really great on film and made everyone's eyes much bluer than they really were.
If anyone is interested, there is a little article from Kodak about the Director of Photography and the process used for the film:
www.kodak.se/US/plugins/acrobat/en/motion/ newsletters/inCamera/oct2001/goodGirl.pdf

 

[Tony G]

I have to add my voice of dissent. My wife and I rented and watched this last night. We enjoy a good dark comedy as much as anyone, but both agreed with Ruth...by the end of this, we just didn't give a damn what happened to these pathetic people. Different strokes, I guess.

On my TV (recently ISF calibrated), everyone with dark hair had a dark blue head. Good to know that there were problems with the transfer.

Tony

 

[Darrel Johansen]

Andrew,

We'd be interested in your comments after you see the DVD. Does the DVD do justice to the film? I, like others, saw blue patches shifting around in the blacks in many scenes.

I did really enjoy the movie, but I've got a dark sense of humor, and had a lot of sympathy for J.A.s character (and, since I don't watch much network TV, no baggage about her character on Friends). For me the PQ was less important than the screenplay and acting. Still, it would be illuminating if someone close to the movie could comment on the DVD transfer because it does seem to be flawed.

 

[John Macri]

Ditto on the poor transfer (Blue-Blacks). I have a 2-week old 50" HDTV and after watching this DVD had to quickly pop in my Band of Brothers DVD to check if my TV had gone south...
RE: the film, I also had problems with these simple-minded characters and found their illogical behavior hard to care about. Too bad, as I was looking forward to this DVD. Although well-acted, with some humorous moments, it came across as one long Jerry Springer episode...

 

[Blu]

a expose` on how boredom can deconstruct a life with tragic results. A fantastic movie, you could just see and feel what the character was thinking in the very way she walked. Her arms limp by her sides in defeat.

A very good movie overall with a horrible transfer.
I feel this was on par with In The Bedroom in terms of quality of story.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Quote:

IMO, the noisy blue-blacks are so bad and distracting (considering that my totally non-video friend actually thought that it was a boot-leg DVD...I had to take it out of the DVD player and show her the disc and case before she believed me that it was a normal studio disc!!!) that Fox needs to reauthor this disc properly and exchange it. It's bonifide defective!

 

[Jeff Whitford]

Now for the really important question...... its R rated do we get to see Jennifer naked?

 

[James Reader]

I've had this for a while now, and finally watched it last night.
Wow. Aniston's performance was brilliant. It's kind of ironic is it not that she won an Emmy last year for her Friends work when Rachel was pregnant - but go no nods for her performance in The Good Girl in any of this year's awards. :frowning:
I don't know if I could recommend this film to everybody, it is kind of dark (emotionally that is... I'm not going to talk about the transfer ) But those who crave something more than the average feel good "Hollywood" would be wise to take a look.

 

[BBbrowd]

This is a very interesting film. Most people either loved it or hated it. I loved it. A friend and I went to see it three times at the theater. Although the film deals with some depressing issues, it's also often quite hilarious. The scene when she and her husband run away from "bible study" is just great.

As we were leaving the theater once, we heard a few people saying "that was the worst movie I ever saw". For a while my friend and I thought "Are we the only two people in the world who love this movie?"

Jennifer Aniston was superb. Jennifer reached new heights with her performance in 1998's "The Object of My Affection" and she really tops herself here in "The Good Girl". The rest of the cast was great as well. What helps to make this film so amusing is the timing and delivery of the dialog. The long pause and blank expression Jennifer gives John C. Reilly after he says "feels like I been attacked by hornets in my eye balls", is priceless.

I found myself really empathizing with her character. For anyone who has ever felt trapped in their daily existence, you will relate to this film.

My DVD version has the same problems that you all mention. It really is a shame, but it does not take away from the joy of watching it. The extras are pretty good too.

If you enjoyed this film, check out the film "Chuck and Buck" also written by Mike White. Mike not only wrote "The Good Girl", but he plays the security guard Corny at the Retail Rodeo.

 

[JohnRice]

I'm glad to see Andrew stepped in with some comments on how the film was shot. I hope he comes back with more after he has seen the DVD.

I expect most of what Ron saw as a bad transfer is actually how the film was shot. That is, the general softness and slightly odd color of the image. I'm inclined to think the blue blacks are the result of something gone wrong in creating the positive that the film was transferred from. I don't think it was probably a problem with the transfer itself, which would mean they would have to do the transfer completely over again from a new source.

Excellent film, and as the feedback has shown, not for everyone.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I'm inclined to think the blue blacks are the result of
something gone wrong in creating the positive that the film was
transferred from.

Those blue-blacks are pretty "digital" looking...you can see macro-blocking and the whole nine-yards. Even the "edge" of the blue-black areas are macro-blocking in appearance. It's clearly (to my eyes) something that's not film-related but rather something going on during conversion to digital (film-tape?) or compression etc.

 

[Alex Spindler]

I recall that those dark scenes were very high contrast (constrasty?), so I think that it must have been difficult to translate to digital.

 

[wally]

Damn, I was hoping the post to this somewhat old thread might have some info on a corrected disk. I liked this movie too (Ron’s review tipped the boat for me), but boy is the disc difficult to watch (transfer) in places.

 

[JonathonSan]

I'm glad I came back to read this thread. I thought there was something wrong with my LCD PJ. It looked like LCD monitors look from an extreme angle, the blown out blacks. Great movie. Leaves a taste in your mouth for a while after watching.

Jonathon