Review of Love The Hard Way

Introduction

Another of those films that have probably slipped under your radar. It got its premiere in August 2001 at the Locarno Film Festival, and played at European festivals during 2002, and seemed to get dusted off for a US audience in June 2003 (cashing in on Adrien Brody`s success with The Pianist). It never got a UK cinema release, but did manage to pick up some obscure awards at the Bavarian Film Awards, the Locarno International Film Festival and the International Festival of Action and Adventure Films(despite not being either of those).

A very international flavour to this one. It`s a New York story adapted from a Chinese novel by German director Peter Sehr and French writer Marie Noelle. The brief outline of the plot is up above and that`s all the detail you need for now.

Video

A pretty average full frame transfer, annoying for several reasons. First, it was shot in 1.85:1. Second, the region 1 DVD has an anamporphic transfer. And finally, it`s less than perfect on several other counts, such as a lack of detail, washed out colours at times (and they seem unintentional) and some print damage.

Audio

Just a DD2.0 stereo soundtrack here. A DD5.1 track exists on the region 1 version, but here we just get plain stereo. There`s the odd good effect if you pump it through a home cinema amp or processor, and it`s a reasonable stereo track, just a shame that they didn`t put more effort into it.

The soundtrack is a mixture of funky hip hop and mood pieces.

Features

Two bonus features await. "U-Store It, U-Lock It, U-Keep the Key: Love the Hard Way: The Making Of" is the first, and this is an hour long feature which is composed of behind the scenes footage, interviews with the main protagonists and quite a bit of insight into the process of making the film.

The second feature also lasts for over an hour, and contains loads of interview footage (some repeated from the previous feature) as well as some deleted scenes/out-takes.

Both features are in widescreen, but like the main film they lack subtitles. This is a massive problem when German actor August Diehl is interviewed - as he mostly talks in German and you can`t work out what he`s saying unless you speak the language.

Conclusion

Hmm. I think I know why this one got shelved for so long and re-appeared for the "cash in" factor. Probably because I just couldn`t believe the 2 lead characters, despite the best efforts of Adrien Brody and Charlotte Ayanna. The story really annoyed me because I couldn`t find myself believing in it. The rises and falls of the 2 characters are just too jarring, and then the film thrashes about looking for an ending and decides just to cop out instead.

The extras however are far more interesting, and I enjoyed the 2 hours of extras a lot more than the 2 hours of film. All those involved are certainly proud and enthusiastic about the film and it`s interesting to get all their perspectives on it. A shame I didn`t share their views.

The disc smacks of laziness, with an average (or just below average) full frame transfer, stereo soundtrack and no subtitles.

One to avoid.