Review of Nora

Introduction

This is an intense and modern love story about James Joyce (Ewan McGregor) who is a writer and meets Nora, played by Susan Lynch who features in the latest cinema release "From Hell". They both land themselves into a relationship with each other that has its ups and downs which they both try to work out, during this time they both find out each others strengths and weaknesses and what causes their pains. They first meet in Dublin and the title "Dubliners" is the idea for James`s book he is attempting to write, he begins to manipulate Nora`s life in order to write about it and fit it into his fiction. Nora is a very independent woman and yet she inspires James and gives him voice to his words.

Video

The box sleeve information states that the movie is in widescreen 1.85:1, I found out that using the `wide` mode on the TV the picture ratio doesn`t look right and looks crushed/squeezed, the first scene of Ewan McGregor`s face proves this. The DVD has no autoflag for widescreen although it is in 1.85:1 standard and not anamorphic, I had to watch the movie in `zoom 16:9` which kept the ratio correct but opens the picture line structure. It`s a pity the DVD wasn`t anamorphic!!
The skintones are warmly coloured and healthy, the blacks are bold and not too dark to see the picture detail through. Some of the town scenes are all darkly painted up and very gloomy, but nicely authentic and set. Later in the movie the contrast in colour and `life` differ once Nora awakes and opens the bedroom window to a new view, followed by the morning activities of the public, it`s almost like watching the changing of scenes in "The Wizard Of Oz" switching between black and white to colour. There are some nicely framed outdoor shots which have a `naturalness` about them and have no need for digital/special effects to bring them to life. There is also a nice touch used a few times, to represent a train moving which features blurred scenery and `whizzing` cloud. The picture itself is a fine transfer.

Audio

The audio is set to Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo this was the decoded format through my amp, I actually enhanced my audio enjoyment to Dolby Prologic as to keep the dialogue in the centre speaker. The dialogue throughout was clear and so you could make out the Irish accents, if you notice when Ewan McGregor is arguing with Nora in the street he tends to speed up a little and lose his, with his Scottish accent being similar in comparrison to Irish he can pull it off quite good and you can`t notice the slips that much. Seagulls crying overhead was a sign that even mellow ambient sounds were clear and could be picked up, Listen out for the train arriving at a station although Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo the effects sounded good enough to sound realistic and close to, even the thunder and lightning effects were loud and impressive even on this minimal setup.
The music within the movie was a mixture of strings which gave the story a love and romance feel, certain scenes were emphasised by the moods that the strings provided. Songs that were sung on the stage scene and the moving tune between the lovers over James`s guitar in the bar were also clear and surprisingly did sound good.

Features

The features and menus are minimal, and consist of a trailer, behind the scenes featurette lasting 4.5 minutes and a cast and crew interviews feature which runs about 14 mins 20 secs. Ewan makes a deffensive point in the interviews about the U.S. having U.K. made movies and it shouldn`t be allowed , He and Susan Lynch both give insights to their characters and the director also says a few words in regards to the plot. The menu is a static screen shot of the DVD box cover with nothing animated and just listings for chapters, extra features and play movie.

Conclusion

An enjoyable periodic romance, intense like a relationship these days and not `Hollywood` style, the moods of the characters are what got slightly confusing for me sometimes through the story and I would have to watch it a second time to clear up some of the details I missed or didn`t understand. But with the string music accompaniment, good acting and nicely set locations and scenes it was a nice tale, but a lot shorter than "Gone With The Wind".