Review of Elephant Juice

Introduction

Firstly, this has nothing to do with Elephants, or the process of extracting juice from them or anything else even vaguely related to the words "Elephant" and "Juice".

It is in fact the big screen writing debut from Amy Jenkins (creator of the highly acclaimed BBC series This Life), and the second big screen outing from one of the directors of that series, Sam Miller. The film features a reasonably low key cast apart from the fantastic French actress Emanuelle Béart (whose only other film in English was Mission Impossible), and perhaps Daniela Nardini, who shot to fame as Anna in This Life - coincidence?

Video

A very good anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer is presented here. Despite this being a low budget film that most people will never have heard of, we still get a very good picture with everything looking crisp and sharp and very nice indeed.

No mega special effects here and the only thing of note is that there are quite a few shots of the London underground. And, erm, that`s it really.

Audio

A very relaxed and laid back DD2.0 stereo soundtrack. No real score to speak of, no surround sound action and just a few interesting songs, like the cover of "I`m Not In Love" performed by the Fun Lovin` Criminals. Uninspiring.

Features

Not much here either. Biographies for the writer, director and the thespians behind the main characters. There are also some production notes, if you fancy sifting through pages and pages of text with some spelling mistakes and other errors popping up. This information would be much better presented in interview form as most of it is made up of quotes from the cast and crew.

Conclusion

You`ve probably never heard of Elephant Juice. And there`s a good reason for that. It`s not very good. Sometimes these "unknown" films are real gems, but not this time. The characters are very weak and the script is even weaker at times.

As Jenkins herself admits she doesn`t usually write stories with beginnings, middles and ends. Whilst this can sometimes be a good thing, in the case of Elephant Juice it makes for a film that doesn`t know where it`s going and wouldn`t know what to do if it ever got there.

Scenes are interspersed with questions being typed onto the screen, which seems pointless and annoying. Emanuelle Béart copes admirably with what little she has to work with, whilst Daniela Nardini just seems to be re-hashing Anna from This Life.

The film just seems to be a rambling mess that needs to go through a few hundred more re-writes to turn it into something watchable. Another blow to anyone who thought that the British had worked out how to make good films again.

The DVD itself is ok - the picture quality is excellent (given the fact that the film didn`t get many screenings apart from film festivals, it`s no surprise that there was a good quality print available), the sound is ok and there are even a few extras on display. But the film itself is just a travesty and a waste of the DVD pressing plant`s time.

Avoid.