TO GILLIAN ON HER 37th BIRTHDAY

“TO GILLIAN ON HER 37th BIRTHDAY” has been released in a full frame-only dvd.  Michelle Pfeiffer, Peter Gallagher and Claire Danes star in this touching, memorable love story. It’s destined to find its rightful place among the great “love story” films of the century, in spite of the fact it bombed during its theatrical release.

David Lewis is unable to let go of the deep passions he has for his wife.  He lives and breathes for her, and because she’s been dead for nearly two years, it’s been affecting his relationships with the living.  His daughter, Claire Danes, has been living with her aunt, and David has been living by himself, supposedly working on a novel, but really just living day-to-day with the apparition of his lost love.

The film’s story focuses on a weekend around his dead wife’s(Gillian)birthday.  His sister-in-law, is visiting him with her husband, David’s daughter, and a friend that she hopes may lure him into attempting a new relationship with a living person.  It’s also the weekend in which his sister-in-law, Kathy Bates, will decide if she should seek sole custody of his daughter due to her father’s questionable sanity.

The film has so much going for it in terms of atmosphere, story, dialogue, acting, that in spite of a few flaws, it’s a still a spectacular film.  It’s the kind of film one feels good about turning other people onto.

Because the film appears to have been considered mostly for a “woman’s” market, and COLUMBIA TRISTAR appears to believe the bigger percentage of this market still wants “full-screen” instead of letterbox, the release is only available in full-frame.  I understand the strategy of presenting full-frame, for the naïve consumers that are out there, but to eliminate letterbox as an option?

In comparison to the letterboxed laserdisc, it’s obvious in almost every scene, that the image has been blown up, and we’re missing picture information.  Just as important, the image is far grainer than the laserdisc version.
Colors are generally fine, although the contrast is only adequate, with limited delineation between blacks and grays.

COLUMBIA TRISTAR has provided a Dolby 5.0 soundmix, which is a slight improvement, in terms of directional effects, over the laserdisc.  Still, unfortunately, there are minimal surround moments, with the exception of the stirring musical soundtrack.