Spiral – DVD Review

Film, Reviews

spiral
Available at Amazon.com

Things aren’t always what they seem in life, and that fact often gets people in a lot of trouble. Someone may think the relationship they are in currently is moving faster than the other person, and when brought up it may be mistake and cause the romance to end. You can even look at sports. A person may think they are really good at a particular sport and when they try to showcase their skills, someone shows them up and embarrasses them. Not seeing things clearly can cause embarrassment, depression, hurt, and even dementia.

Mason is a simple man. He works for an automobile insurance company. His hobbies include listening to great jazz while painting and sketching. He likes to keep to himself, but also longs for the right girl to come into his life and love him unconditionally. Berkeley is Mason’s boss and his only friend; well, if you can really call him that. He’s cruel and sometimes harsh to him, but Mason relies on Berkeley when things get tough and he needs someone to talk too. Berkeley is able to calm him down and get him back on the right path.

One day Mason happens to stumble across a young woman named Amber that works with him. She is beautiful and quite the loner like him, but very talkative. Even though his efforts to ignore her are evident; they fail miserably and it couldn’t have been a better thing for either of them that they did. Together they seem like a match made in Heaven. She loves everything about him and she also lets him paint and sketch her according to his own rules. All is right with their world until Amber begins to question Mason’s sordid past, and things start turning out to not be quite what they seem.

Writer/Director Adam Green caught my attention late last year when he brought Hatchet to the big screen and restored my faith in the horror genre. When I first saw the trailer for Spiral, my attention was caught once more and it seemed as if a new psychological thriller was coming my way. Let me just say that for the first seventy minutes of the film, my assumption was wrong and I couldn’t be happier about it. Then for the last twenty minutes of the film, my assumption was correct and I also couldn’t have been happier about it.

Confused? Then let me explain.

The trailer is going to give you the feeling that Spiral is going to be a fast-paced and intense psychopathic thrill ride. At least that is what I got out of it. About thirty minutes into the film, none of that had yet hit home so it left me a tad underwhelmed (for lack of a better word). But then it became a really great and candid love story. The relationship shown between Amber and Mason was just so much fun, so enjoyable, and so incredibly full of life. A relationship with the main characters was built up by Adam Green so that me as an audience could connect with them and care for them. Then all of a sudden, things began to turn. There were trust issues followed by secrets and some also feelings of deceit. By the time the film had ended, my heart had been shattered, pieced back together, and then broken in half again. It was amazing.

Green does a fantastic job of directing here while Joel David Moore as Mason is just awesome as the crazed, sane person. Does that make sense? Anyway, their efforts are immensely overshadowed by Amber Tamblyn. She is by far one of the greatest young actresses out there today. Her character showed intelligence, ditziness, love, care, affection, fear, sadness, and every other emotion known to man; and she did them all well. Not to mention that she is just too adorable. Tamblyn is a beautiful woman that just makes you want to smile the entire time she is on screen. Her playful ways and sly little smile made me grin boyishly. Her tears and apologies honestly made my eyes water. And her…no, I can’t give anymore away. If you don’t think this film is for you, then at least watch it for her performance because you’re going to be seeing a lot more of her. I guarantee it.

The film is shown in 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen format and it looks great. There is a lot of color in this film due to the artistic talents shown in Mason’s paintings and his life in general. There are also numerous dark scenes, but everything is always seen clearly.

The film is heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and also sounds really awesome. Some of the greatest jazz music you’ll ever hear is played throughout the duration of the film and just comes through perfectly. All dialogue is heard clearly while the subwoofer gets a real workout during the tense scenes.

Audio Commentary – A nice group track with director Adam Green, actor/director Joel David Moore, actors Amber Tamblyn and Zachary Levi, writer Jeremy Daniel Boreing, and director of photography Will Barratt. For having so many people involved, this commentary isn’t nearly as chaotic as you’d expect. Everyone takes turns speaking and giving nice information about the film as it goes along complete with some fun memories from the shoot. They talk about where some scenes were shot and also discuss a lot of things in the film that some people just may not understand the first time.

Kind of surprised me though when they talked a lot about some deleted scenes that weren’t included on the DVD. This isn’t the type of film that would get another “special edition” release or anything, so I wonder why they were left off.

Spinning Spiral: The Making Of Spiral – This eight minute featurette simply is a basic “making of” that shows the cast on the set having a good time and dealing with the harsh weather elements.

Trailer

Cinefile Promos – There are three of these and they run about three minutes a piece. Nothing more then some behind the scenes footage of the cast and crew filming, but still kind of fun.

I’ve heard and read some bad things about this film, but let’s just say my views don’t agree with any of that. Spiral may not have been what I was expecting considering the trailers that were released, but it still managed to successfully entertain me, confuse me, and thrill me. After about fifteen minutes, you’re going to forget about the trailer you saw and see this film in an entirely new light. Come the final climax, you’ll remember everything you thought was coming and realize how well two totally different films were meshed into one. The special features are kind of bare, but the commentary track is superb so make sure to give it a listen. Including those deleted scenes they discussed though would have really bumped up the overall score quite a bit here. Adam Green is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors and only two of his films have I seen. First the mighty underrated Hatchet which was awesome and now the brilliance of Spiral. Keep up the good work Mr. Green while I patiently (somewhat) await your next release.

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Anchor Bay presents Spiral. Directed by: Adam Green, Joel David Moore. Starring: Joel David Moore, Zachary Levi, Amber Tamblyn, Tricia Helfer. Written by: Jeremy Daniel Boreing, Joel David Moore. Running time: 91 minutes. Rating: PG-13. Released on DVD: February 19, 2008. Available at Amazon.com