Review of Presence Of Mind

Introduction

Presence of Mind is an adaptation of the Henry James classic thriller ‘The Turn of the Screw’ which has, amongst other films, inspired the recent Nicole Kidman hit ‘The Others’.

Sadie Frost plays a young woman who, upon her father’s death, becomes the governess of two young orphaned children. She joins Miles and Flora on their remote island mansion, and their housekeeper Mado Remei (played by the legendary Lauren Bacall). Although they at first to be normal children, soon she discovers her pupils and the house holds dark secrets that she cannot ignore.

Video

For the most part the picture is of good quality and more than satisfactory for a low-fanfare release. The colours are strong through most of the movie, and the level detail is high. However, in the darker scenes the picture suffers a little: at nighttime the blacks seem more greyish, and the grain on the print is more noticeable. Still, taking into account this is a back catalogue release without wide appeal, the picture is of a decent quality.

Audio

The stereo soundtrack is a bit of a disappointment: not because of the lack of spatial effects, as those are not the primary concern in a wordy movie, but because of the dialogue reproduction. Frequently I found the actors difficult to hear, and had to turn up the volume accordingly. This is a very annoying problem that can be easily solved by cleaning up the track just a little; unfortunately this was not done here and it hinders the enjoyment of the film.

Features

The trailer is included and is of a similar picture quality to that of the main feature. I think this trailer emphasises perfectly how Presence of Mind is very much TV material, lacking that cinematic quality.

Conclusion

I’ve seen some casual reviews from fans that love this film, think it a fantastic adaptation. I have to disagree I’m afraid: Presence of Mind leaves me cold. It was indeed a great coup for the director to team together Sadie Frost, Harvey Keitel and Lauren Bacall, but despite their best efforts I was unimpressed with their acting and, coupled with the distant direction, I was left rather uninvolved by this film. Relying more on a creepy atmosphere rather than outright scares to chill the audience, I was not impressed with these efforts either – The Others made an infinitely more effective try at this. Just like the DVD itself, I thought Presence of Mind bland and thoroughly boring. Having not read Henry James’s novel, I can’t comment on the faithfulness of the adaptation, but I can’t believe a ‘classic’ book could have possibly been as poor as this film version.