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Brand New Day Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

Matt Hough

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Matt Hough

Contrary to common belief, the best musicals also have a solid central story on which to hang their songs and dances, and it’s even better if the songs and dances grow organically from the story the film is telling. Musicals with a skeletal storyline of no consequence (like Rachel Perkins’ Brand New Day) have neither the depth nor interest to sustain a feature length film, and if the songs and dances are as innocuous and uninspired as those present in this movie, then the film has very little to offer. Such is the case with Brand New Day. It may be a mildly pleasant movie for the most undemanding of viewers (the kind that would find the heavy dramatics of Mamma Mia! overly taxing), but there’s very little here worth noting.





Brand New Day (Blu-ray)
Directed by Rachel Perkins

Studio: 20th Century Fox
Year: 2009
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1   1080p   AVC codec
Running Time: 85 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English
Subtitles: SDH, Spanish

Region: A
MSRP: $ 29.99


Release Date: September 13, 2011

Review Date: September 13, 2011



The Film

2.5/5


When his mother (Ningali Lawford) sends him off to Perth to a boarding school in preparation for becoming a priest, teenaged Willie (Rocky McKenzie) feels enormous guilt because he’s fallen for local Broome girl Rosie (Jessica Mauboy) who’s begun singing in a local honky tonk and is being romanced by their suave crooner Lester (Josiah Page). Willie tries to sublimate his feelings and even confesses to Father Benedictus (Geoffrey Rush) about his feelings for his girl, but the father cautions him about succumbing to the sins of the flesh. Finally, Willie can’t stand the separation and his intense feelings and with a local bum who claims to be his Uncle Tadpole (Ernie Dingo), he sets off with two hippies (Tom Budge, Missy Higgins) in their van on the long journey back to Broome.


The film was based on a popular Australian stage musical and has been adapted for the screen by director Rachel Perkins (co-written for the screen by Reb Cribb and Jimmy Chi), but the story is so slight (none of the road adventures amount to anything; there seems to be a perverse need for all of the roadside hookers they meet along the way to seduce the underage, virginal Willie), and the music and staging is so pedestrian (even amateurish at times) that nothing tends to gel here into reasonably entertaining fluff. The two young leads only have fair voices (Jessica Mauboy is slightly more assured in her singing than Rocky McKenzie), so their numbers (Willie and Rosie’s “I’ll Be Comin’ Back Home” duet, the interpolated “Stand By Your Man” for Rosie) don’t make much of an impression. The production numbers are especially lacking in choreographic interest. “There’s Nothing I’d Rather Be” features the sound of tapping, but no one is actually doing the dancing (the camera never strays near anyone’s feet during the dance), and the young men’s ensemble doesn’t have even rudimentary rhythmic skills to kick in unison. Lester’s solo “Hey, Boy” features the best young male voice in the movie, and the bums’ production number “Shake Off Your Burden” is probably the best song in the show. But Perkins seems desperate to try anything that might add a scintilla of entertainment value to the movie, so we get a completely unnecessary underwater number “Afterglow” for the two hippies and even a nonsensical hoedown with migrant workers to the main theme from “Zorba the Greek.” Perkins does achieve one moment of stylish excellence: Willie’s dream of pride in his Aboriginal heritage turns into a nicely staged, stylized dance to “Our People” though the tune’s mediocrity dissipates the number’s effectiveness somewhat.


The film’s best performance comes from Ernie Dingo who doesn’t let Uncle Tadpole’s eccentricities and mannerisms become too eye-popping and flamboyant to be tolerable. He does a good job trying to imbue his character with some believably human characteristics. Rocky McKenzie, Jessica Mauboy, and Dan Sultan are all hampered by the needlessly clichéd characters that have been written for their trite love triangle plot device. Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush seems to be slumming in the worst way imaginable, overplaying every scene with an exaggerated display that’s very hard to take. Missy Higgins and Tom Budge are both okay as the hippies while Deborah Mailman and Magda Szubanski as roadside hookers looking for action are meant to be funny and only seem pathetic.



Video Quality

4.5/5


The film has been framed at its theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. Apart from some severe banding issues during the animated opening credits, the remainder of the film transfer is jaw-dropping in its beauty and attention to detail. Color saturation is extremely lush without veering into problems with blooming while flesh tones are completely natural and believable. Black levels are truly excellent with the letterbox bars easily blending into the night sky without any crushed blacks. Shadow detail is also wonderful. The film has been divided into 24 chapters.



Audio Quality

4/5


The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix gives the music score the primary emphasis in the surround channels. Voices in both singing and speaking have been placed in the center channel with the expansive orchestrations of the songs and background score filling the available surround channels with aplomb. Not a lot has been done with ambient sounds for a road trip movie of this type, the sound mix’s most notable lack.



Special Features

0/5


Apart from some promo trailers for Terri, The 5th Quarter, and Henry’s Crime, there are no bonus features on the disc.



In Conclusion

2.5/5 (not an average)


A very pedestrian musical that has only a couple of decent tunes and is filled with performances that are either too much or too little for the material, Brand New Day isn’t nearly as much fun to watch as its makers would appear they want it to be. Though the video quality is stunning and the audio fully serves the musical score, the release offers no bonus features at all thus making it a distinct disappointment.




Matt Hough

Charlotte, NC

 

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