The Vow – Blu-ray Disc Review

May 17, 2012 – 12:34 pm - Posted by: Justin Sluss

Tags: BD-Live, Blu-ray, Channing Tatum, Dillon Casey, Jeananne Goossen, Jessica Lange, Jessica McNamee, Joe Cobden, Joey Klein, Lindsay Ames, Lucas Bryant, Michael Sucsy, Rachel McAdams, Sam Neill, Scott Speedman, Shannon Barnett, Sony, Tatiana Maslany, UltraViolet, Wendy Crewson

has an average rating of 6.6 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
short but worthwhile with other extras
–
– 2012
– 104 minutes
– Sony
–
This uses 26.5GB for the movie out of 34.1GB total.

Overall Verdict – Recommended

Buy it on Blu-ray for $19.99 @ Amazon.com

— Review written by: Justin Sluss —

Trailer:

The Movie Itself is inspired by true events. The screenplay is based on the real life inspiring events that happened to a couple. Things like their names and some other details have been changed as well as some fictional characters and situations added. The film was directed by Michael Sucsy who’s only other previous directing credit included a HBO TV movie called “Grey Garden’s” from 2009.

The film centers on a young married couple living in Chicago by the names of “Paige” (played by Rachel McAdams) and “Leo” (played by Channing Tatum). We’re first introduced to them as they leave the glorious Music Box Theatre after seeing a film to find that what started out as only a inch or so of snow when they went in has now turned into a massive amount of snow. Sure, it looks beautiful (especially to the viewers watching the film) but it’s also very dangerous to drive in. A few minutes go by as Paige giggles and watches Leo try to scrape the snow off of the windshield of their car. They get on the road and manage to drive a bit of a ways and are admiring the view when Leo decides to stop the car at an intersection. Paige makes a joke about couples that have sex in cars are more likely to conceive a child which leaves Leo a bit distracted. That moment of distraction is long enough for him to not notice, until it’s way too late, that a snow plow is coming right at them from behind and can’t stop as it begins to skid on the ice and snow. It plows (no pun intended) right into the back of their car and Paige, who removed her seatbelt earlier to get a bit intimate, is thrown through the front windshield. We’re next seeing the two in the emergency room. Eventually Leo regains consciousness and asks where his wife is. He latter meets up with her only to be told by a doctor that she’s lost her immediate memory. She can’t even remember him being her husband or better yet who he is. This really frustrates Leo but he’s determined to make his wife remember who he is and the love they shared.

Complications arise for Leo trying to convince Paige of their marriage and regain her memories when her parents show up, whom he’s never even met. Her mother (played by Jessica Lange) and father (played by Sam Neill) are very wealthy and pay to have her put in a better part of the hospital to receive the best of care. They don’t seem to be the most fond of her being married to Leo and try their best to go with the fact she can’t remember him or their marriage. Once Paige is well enough to be sent home from the hospital they try to talk both her and her doctor, as well as Leo into letting Paige come home with them as they claim she should be surrounded by familiar faces. Leo manages to talk Paige into giving him a chance to convince her who he is and of their marriage by coming home with him to their apartment. This might have went a bit more smoothly if a surprise party of their friends wasn’t the first thing she was greeted by. This makes Paige feel extremely awkward, confused and obviously frustrated as she doesn’t remember absolutely any of these people. The two (Paige and Leo) as a result have a bit of a fight because of this. He tries to refresh her memory by taking her back to her art studio and showing her projects she was sculpting. She has no clue what this stuff is and no idea how to even sculpt. This leaves the two both very frustrated.

Paige eventually gets so frustrated that she moves out of their apartment and stays with her parents. Her sister “Gwen” (played by Jessica McNamee) is engaged to be married and the wedding is coming up soon so she gets a bit into that. She also manages to run into some old friends which she DOES remember, namely her ex-fiancé “Jeremy” (played by Scott Speedman). She finds out that she was the one who broke off the engagement and we the audience can tell that Jeremy still has feelings for Paige. This totally causes some even further complications, especially in her regaining memory of her marriage to Leo. She’s a bit distracted and this Jeremy guy, just like her parents, is trying to totally take advantage of the situation. Leo eventually finds out about this and does his best to try to get Paige to give him another chance to help her remember the love they had. He takes her on a date and tries to recreate all the conditions in which they fell in love. That’s where I’ll end things to avoid any real “spoilers” so-to-speak. However be warned there is a paragraph further below in my closing bit that does contain some stuff you might want to skip over if you have not seen the film.

“The Vow” proved to be a very heart-warming film but also disturbing and at times downright frustrating, as you want Paige to remember the love that she and Leo shared. The complications that arise involving her parents and ex-fiancé Jeremy also prove to be downright frustrating but do add for some obvious drama. We learn here that love is something that can be forgotten but if someone has enough faith they can try their hardest to make that person fall in love with them again. Wether or not Paige ever actually does fall back in love with Leo or regain her memory I will not say but let’s just say Leo tries as hard as he can. This movie is not just a “chic flick” it’s a film for everyone and I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.

*** POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT ***

The couple the film is based on Kim and Krickitt Carpenter have a book available called “The Vow: The True Events That Inspired The Movie” which you can purchase HERE at Amazon on paperback (print), Audiobook or in Kindle format. A few news stories about the wife & husband can also be found HERE on the United Methodist Church’s website as well as HERE over at Fox News. This is all worth reading but save it until AFTER you have seen the film. That’s why I’ve put the “spoiler” alert above. As you’ll read the real-life couple wasn’t too happy that the religious theme was stripped from what’s told in the film. Personally, I can see why it was taken out as it might have alienated some folks who aren’t Christian. Making it more relatable to people was a good decision as love not only conquers all but it also is something those of all faiths believe in.

Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio. According to IMDb‘s technical specifications for the aspect ratio this was shot on Super 35MM film using the Arriflex 435 and Arriflex 535B cameras. This looks really crisp from start to finish with just a slight bit of film grain present. The flesh tones are accurate, the color palette is vibrant and the black level is definitely solid. The opening of the film makes for some really beautiful visuals as “Paige” and “Leo” leave the Music Box Theatre in Chicago pictured HERE in a screenshot. The snow on the streets looks quite beautiful lit by the street lamps and the glow of the theatre’s sign. Things get a bit more visually impressive, yet disturbing, when they have their car accident. As “Paige” goes flying through the windshield you’ll be very disturbed yet also wondering “how’d they do that?” at the very same time. Impressive special effects there to say the least; which I think is probably for the best and left experienced by the viewer as to not dish out too much info. I just felt that was worth mentioning as well as doing screenshots of to show how impressive it looked visually. Once that is over and the two are rushed to the emergency room things get a whole lot brighter in terms of lighting, revealing a bit more detail. Speaking of detail, close-ups hold a great amount of detail in this visual presentation as you’ll see HERE and HERE in two scenes from the flashback sequences. This really holds an extremely crisp (as mentioned earlier), clear and somewhat stunning Hi-Def presentation thanks to that Super 35MM source and earns itself an impressive “4.5 Star Rating” for overall video quality.

Audio Quality on this release is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio. The original Score (music) by Michael Brook and Rachel Portman here sounds great and also gets some nice rear channel presence as well as a decent amount of LFE (bass). The real musical highlight in terms of music in the film to me proved to be a part about roughly halfway through the film that involved the OK Go song “This Too Shall Pass” — as it had some excellent rear channel and LFE presence, with vocals clearly delivered through the front left & right speakers as well as obviously the center channel — when dialogue wasn’t being spoke. Regarding dialogue, it’s delivered very distinctly here and it’s the most important aspect of this film in terms of sound. You’ll find it primarily driven from the center channel and never is drowned out by any of the music. It’s also worth mentioning the sound effects early on involving the car crash prove to pack a little bit of “punch” to them. All and all, this 5.1 lossless mix isn’t the most intense stuff you’ll ever here but it does a drama like this justice. This earns itself a solid “4 Star Rating” for overall audio quality. I’d like to lastly mention (as it’s in no way a “spoiler”) that the song “Pictures of You” by The Cure that plays at the end of the film during the credits not only sounds wonderful here but was absolutely appropriate and helped the film’s ending.

Bonus Materials on this release are ALL presented in full 1080p Hi-Def (HD) video quality with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo @192kbps sound.

• BD-Live is included on this Sony Blu-ray Disc release. This allows you to access online content from the studio to watch the latest trailers and more. BD-Live requires you to first have a Blu-ray Disc Player that is “Profile 1.1″ capable and secondly to have Internet connectivity (on the player as well).
• Audio Commentary with Director Michael Sucsy
• Deleted Scenes (5:56 – HD)
• Gag Reel (3:10 – HD)
• A DVD of the film in standard definition is included with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.
• An UltraViolet digital copy of the film is included which can be downloaded and streamed online. This is acquired via a URL and redemption code included on the a insert included in the packaging.
• A paper insert is included which can be used to redeem 5 Free Music Downloads from Sony‘s MusicPass service. These are in the MP3 format and include a wide variety of musical artists on Sony’s music label(s).
Blu-ray Disc EXCLUSIVE Featurettes:
• “‘Til Death Do They Part” (8:15 – HD)
• “Profiles of Love: Paige and Leo” (9:59 – HD)
• “Trying To Remember” (10:10 – HD)

Overall the bonus materials here prove to be worthwhile but are a tad bit short. They only total up to roughly 39 minutes in length but still that isn’t all that bad. There’s also an inclusion of an audio commentary by the director. The physical bonus material includes a DVD as well as an UltraViolet streaming/downloadable digital copy of the film. If you enjoyed the film you’ll find these worth the watch, listen and possibly worth using (referring to the DVD & UltraViolet digital copy). One last thing worth mentioning that is included is the redemption code for 5 free music (MP3) downloads from Sony‘s MusicPass service.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

Screenshots:

NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Please be patient with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.

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