THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY - DVD review

Ever seen a film that begins with a few different characters doing their own thing, and as it progresses you're given the idea they may be closer related than you first thought? By the end, sure enough, everyone is linked somehow, and it all makes sense. In general, these tales are creative, sometimes innovative, and pieced together by clever minds with the skill to make them flow and thrive. The best recent example is probably "Crash," winner of 2006's Best Picture Oscar. While "This Beautiful City," an upcoming release from Cinema Epoch, isn't really on the same level, it takes the philosophy and applies it, along with some strong performances and a rough around the edges presentation, quite well to produce a solid product.

Smaller films like "This Beautiful City" sometimes don't make it to the mainstream theaters. Well, okay, most times they don't. It's a darn shame, because there really is some good, less conventional stuff out there to be seen. Whether or not it would bring in the dollars most studios, writers, performers and other companies would love is a crapshoot, but I'm convinced that films play in one's mind just as much as they do on big screens or DVD players. That's what makes so many different, lesser-known things like this release good. It exposes a different mind than what we're typically used to, and it's a taste I liked, to be quite honest.

I wasn't surprised to see that "This Beautiful City" brought home some hardware. It won two Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) awards for Best Actor and Best Actress, as well as Best Picture awards from the Phoenix Film Festival and the Rhode Island International Film Festival. It also took home the Special Jury Award for a Dramatic Feature Film from WorldFest Houston, and was nominated for four Genie Awards (the Canadian Oscars) after being chosen an Official Selection at the Toronto Film Festival.

The film is basically about five characters all struggling with demons that hinder their individual happiness. Each has his or her own pluses and minuses, and a little bit of what makes "This Beautiful City" work is guessing what those are, and finding out how close to or far from the bulls eye you were. No one gets off easy or without some despair in this story, and director Ed Gass-Donnelly has likely done this intentionally. There's some commentary throughout on why some who lead one lifestyle are separate geographically from those who lead another, when in reality, these groups are closer emotionally and internally than they'd ever admit in public. It's put there to point out just how hypocritical we all can be, and also how imperfect and blind.

Harry (Noam Jenkins) and his wife Carol (Caroline Cave) are wealthy enough to live in a downtown Toronto high rise and drive a fancy car, but both have a secret or two kept from the other. Harry's job isn't all that fun, and he appears to be struggling to find a purpose. Carol doesn't like how Harry showboats his lifestyle for other wealthy friends they have, and one night after dinner, takes a fall off their balcony. She's pretty badly injured, and heads to physical therapy and emotional rehab. Harry keeps working during this time, and their relationship begins to crack as Carol's emotional instability starts to show.

Meanwhile, a prostitute named Pretty (Kristin Booth) and her pimp/boyfriend Johnny (Aaron Poole) are basically dragging through life. Pretty performs sexual favors for money, drugs or attention. Her body shows signs that life on the street is taking its toll, and has the visual scars, bruises and cuts to bear. Johnny looks out for Pretty as best he can, but he rolls with the wrong crowd and can't seem to knock a serious health problem that's probably resulted from many years using heroin or crack cocaine. They get high together, and even though Johnny doesn't really want Pretty to know it, he too is prostituting himself to make a buck. Desperate people do desperate things more often than not.

Finally, Peter (Stuart Hughes) is an old school detective with age beginning to show. His relationship with his daughter has suffered, he can barely stay awake and he's been forced to take a leave of absence from the force. He's lonely, and looks for a woman to share his life with. He doesn't seem happy or sure about who he is, let alone where his life is heading. Peter's frustration with his past lingers into his present, and if not for what happens in this film's concise 85 minute run time, may have crushed him.

After we meet everyone, we fast-forward three months. Harry and Carol have discussed divorce, while Pretty can't get away from the business Johnny hypocritically tells her to stay distanced from, yet engages with daily. As it turns out, Carol finds stability in Peter, and the two gradually become romantically involved. Meanwhile, Harry sees Pretty giving herself to a paying customer one night, and the next day offers to buy her a meal instead of pay her for sex. Johnny is trying to work is traditional job, fight off a violent job gone wrong and fix his health.

I don't want to provide much more detail, as doing so might give away just how these folks come together. It's climactic, but not over done. Director Gass-Donnelly pulls this off in a way that doesn't make us feel especially sorry for anyone, but also doesn't make us think he or she got what he or she deserved. In fact, it gives some healthy twists to that mentality. Is a prostitute someone who should be locked up because she broke the law, or might treating the things that caused her to sell herself sexually be a better route? Can a couple that has every creature comfort and a healthy public image tweak the simple things that make them work as one, or are they destined for a fate so many marriages meet sooner rather than later? Do addicts spiral into rage and depression as depicted, or is it much more or less complex? Are these players victims of their own choices, or does the culture they exist in influence their behavior and decisions? Like it or not, these and many more questions may come to your mind as you watch "This Beautiful City."

I really appreciated how the five lead characters really rose to the level of expectation. They're near perfectly cast, and all look like the sort of individual they're meant to. Make-up and costumes are fitting, and help define one from another while simultaneously building a border around that character's persona. They look like the wealthy, the street dwellers and the hardened detectives they're meant to portray, and that helps the film function smoothly.

The film's title is a poke, suggesting that while something looks dazzling from the outside, it's the inside that tells the real story. Just like you can learn more about an individual by digging through his or her secret shoebox filled with vices, you can learn more about a place with a cross section of folks to examine. "This Beautiful City" gives us a case study that, like it or not, exists in more places in the world than we'd care to acknowledge. Maybe in watching the film we can better understand these submerged stories, and perhaps even influence their futures.

Video:
The film's 1.33:1 widescreen video transfer isn't really superb, but it works well because the story carries such a gritty undertone. There's slight grain in the picture, and bright colors don't pop at you as they likely should. More emphasis is put on the darks, and the balance is really quite good. There are moments where particular scenes look quite vivid and crisp, but it's not consistent throughout, and that's a good thing. I don't think this is a film designed to look, let alone be, attractive in any way. Its message is indirectly connoted through the video transfer, and directly through its characters and their on screen interactions.

Audio:
It's lacking, I'm sorry to say. The generic Dolby Digital 2.0 audio soundtrack is extremely inconsistent. I had to pump up the volume multiple times, then jam it back down as the scene transitioned moments later. Spoken words in both whispers and normal tones are often challenging to hear, but the yelling and verbal battles come through without difficulty. When loud as can be, I detected slight surround sound, but it's barely noticeable. One thing strong throughout are the background noise effects, from gunshots to footsteps. No subtitles are available on the disc.

Extras:
Although we get a traditionally cookie cutter extras offering with "This Beautiful City," it does stand up above other small studio releases. The audio commentary from director Gass-Donnelly, deleted scenes, still image gallery and theatrical trailer aren't horribly thrilling or enthralling, but for a small, independent release, it's a decent array to go around.

A Final Word:
I didn't know what to expect when I popped "This Beautiful City" into my DVD player, but sometimes this isn't so bad. It was nice to get a dirt under your fingernails perspective on how the gap between wealth and poverty, addiction and self-governance, and desire and duty might be much slimmer than we think. This is a gripping film that's worth viewing, but be aware it might make you think twice about the neighborhoods you do or don't spend time in, and how the problems there may be much closer in geography and emotion than you think.