Review of Hotel New Hampshire, The

Introduction

It`s fairly likely that you`ve never heard of this film. I`d certainly never heard of it, despite a high profile cast including Jodie Foster, Natassja Kinski, Beau Bridges, Rob Lowe and Matthew Modine.

Given the fact that it is adapted from the novel by John Irving (writer of the fantastic "The World According to Garp" and more recently "The Cider House Rules"), you`d perhaps be expecting something a little different.

And that`s what you get.

Video

The film is presented in non-anamorphic 1.85:1, probably unsurprising given its age and low profile. The transfer is pretty average, it doesn`t start too well, with whites varying between greeny whites and bluey whites. Also some early greens veer between yellow and green. The film improves from then and looks fairly good most of the time.

Audio

A pretty uninspiring DD2.0 stereo track is on offer here. There are no great pieces of music and no big action scenes - the film is mostly dialogue. There are some very unsubtle "big band" moments on the soundtrack and also some pretty poor re-dubbing in parts. Not a demo disc!

Features

Just a trailer which probably wouldn`t have inspired you to see the film all those years ago, and doesn`t inspire you now.

Conclusion

What looks promising on paper doesn`t always deliver. This film touches on some risky subject matter - rape, incest and homosexuality. But it just blunders around all of them, at times resembling a cheap rip off of an extended Benny Hill sketch.

There are plenty of cheap gags - a farting dog, comedy prostitutes - and some very silly plot twists and supposed "shock tactics". Towards the end it`s almost as if it has jumped into a completely different film.

Watch out for one of Joely Richardson`s earliest big screen performances, and look out for Amanda Plummer (Yolanda from Pulp Fiction). But apart from that there`s nothing really to look out for. This could have been good but in the end is just a waste of 2 hours of your life.