Dramatic Love Triangle With A Light Touch

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday April 14, 2008

Jacqui Taffel with Bernard Zuel for Music DVD

SNOW CAKE

Magna, 112 mins, M, drama, A DD 5.1 R 16:9 widescreen enhanced

Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman are two actors who can make even thin roles watchable, so their presence in Snow Cake is a plus. Weaver plays an autistic woman, Vivienne, and Rickman is Alex, the outsider brought to her door after picking up her hitchhiking daughter (Emily Hampshire, pictured). He ends up staying longer than expected and Carrie Ann Moss, as the sexy next-door-neighbour, completes the triangle. It's a film with a surprisingly light touch, given director Marc Evans's previous thrillers. Compared with Rickman as a grouchy Englishman, Weaver has a harder job convincing as Vivienne, with her tics and obsessions, and doesn't transcend her star status. Still, Snow Cake rises above sentimentality for a quality drama.

Extras Deleted scenes, theatrical trailer.

DEEP WATER

Hopscotch Entertainment/Roadshow, 93 mins, G, documentary A DD 5.1 R 16:9

In 1968, The Sunday Times launched the Golden Globe yacht race. Ten men entered to attempt the first non-stop circumnavigation of the world, sailing solo. The last to set out on the voyage was Donald Crowhurst, an unsuccessful businessman and weekend sailor with a wife and four children. These days it seems highly unlikely he would have been allowed to participate but he sailed away ill-prepared and in debt, into an increasingly desperate and bizarre voyage. This outstanding documentary retraces Crowhurst's sea journey, using footage of the race and journals.

Extras The Crowhurst family's story.

Jacqui Taffel

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK

Away From Her, Forbidden Lies, Conversations With My Gardner, 1408: The Director's Cut, Herzog On Music, The Passion Of Joan Of Arc, Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium, BlackJack, Hidden, In Deep: Season 2

DVD KEY A Audio (DD = Dolby Digital) R Aspect ratio S English subtitles

MUSIC DVD

Ray Charles: Soul Of The Holy Land

Umbrella, E, 60 mins, A DD 2.0 R 4:3 full screen

They're calling this the "Lost Concert", adding a bit of lustre to something that badly needs appeal. But it doesn'twork.

A 1973 tour of Israel finds Ray Charles in sub-Vegas cabaret mode with a set-list that hardly qualifies as vintage, though some of the outfits worn by the Raylettes would make any '70s bridesmaid wince with recognition. Apart from weak song selection, the sound is poor enough to suggest someone recorded this on a tape recorder held up in the audience. The concert footage is intercut with film of Charles in various religious sites - Christian, Jewish and Muslim - and you suspect there could be an interesting film somewhere in there, if someone had had the wit originally.

Extras None.

Bernard Zuel