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| Cold Creek Manor DVD Review |
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Order this DVD from Amazon.com
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Cold Creek Manor
(Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
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| DVD Release Date:
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March 2, 2004
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| Length:
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119 mins.
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| Rated:
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R
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| Format:
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Widescreen (1.85:1)
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| Audio:
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English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, French Language Track
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| Subtitles:
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Spanish, Closed Captioned
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| Extras:
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Bonus Alternate Ending, Deleted Scenes, "Rules of the Genre" Featurette, "Cooper's Documentary", Audio Commentary with Director Mike Figgis
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Cold Creek Manor wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. It think it aspired to be something more than what it was, and this was its undoing. It wanted to be an intelligent movie, but I think it underestimated its audience, and as a result, it failed to make a connection. And it's too bad - because I really wanted to like it.
In Cold Creek Manor, Dennis Quaid plays Cooper Tilson, a documentary filmmaker who moves his family from New York City to the country to escape the hustle and bustle of big city living. However, when he moves into his new house, Cold Creek Manor, he's not welcome. Not only does the small town look down on strangers, the previous owner of the house, Dale Massie (Stephen Dorff) enters the picture to claim his birthright. It's too bad he's a deadbeat, and that his home was repossessed by the bank. So, he becomes an unwelcome guest in their lives, and begins to terrorize the family - but only Cooper can see it. What results is a game of psychological warfare between Dennis Quaid and Stephen Dorff.
Part of the failure of the movie was the characters. Dennis Quaid was okay, but he wasn't really a likeable hero. At times, he came off as bit of an ass, so it made it difficult for me to root for him. Sometimes, I'll root for the bad guy, but Stephen Dorff wasn't very likeable either (but I guess he really wasn't supposed to be). Add to that the fact that I can't stand either of the female leads (Sharon Stone and Juliette Lewis) and, well, what was I supposed to do? If I didn't like any of the characters, how was I supposed to like the movie?
If you're interested in checking out the DVD release of Cold Creek Manor, I should let you know about the special features. First up, there's a commentary by director Mike Figgis. It's not a bad commentary - just don't watch it late at night. Figgis' voice is pretty soothing, and you'll probably fall asleep watching. It's not that the commentary is boring - just that his voice is almost hypnotic - it'll lull you to sleep, which is why I chose to listen during the day. As I said, it's not a terrible commentary. Figgis seems rather intelligent and what he contributes here is pretty interesting. Besides directing, he also composed the film's music, which he takes every opportunity to remind us during his commentary. Also of note, the movie was filmed just outside of Toronto in Cambridge, Ontario so, we get to hear Figgis talk about his experience filming in Canada, which I always find interesting. Even if you didn't particularly enjoy the movie, this commentary is still worth listening to.
The first featurette is titled "Cooper's Documentary". This is a bit misleading. Cooper is a documentary filmmaker, and he's making a film about Cold Creek Manor. From the title of the featurette, you'd figure that you'd be getting Cooper's documentary. Wrong. Instead, you get a look at the making of Cooper's documentary, and how the filmmakers incorporated the documentary footage into the actual film. Sure, there are some nuggets of information here that are worthwhile, but it was still misleading.
The next featurette is titled "Rules of the Genre". Here, we listen to Figgis tell us what rules you're supposed to follow when making a thriller - like tempo, pacing and editing. As a viewer, it's interesting to listen to him talk about how they tried to follow all these rules knowing that the film wasn't really that big of a hit. I guess this means that even if you follow the rules, you're not guaranteed a success - or perhaps he didn't follow the rules as well as he thought he did. Here's where I thought the movie underestimated the audience by trying to be more intelligent than it was. Rules are meant to be broken. If you follow the rules, that's what makes the film predictable.
Finally, we get some deleted and alternate scenes with introductions by the director. Nothing too special here. Some of the scenes were too dark, and I didn't really know what was going on. The one standout scene was the one at the pool hall. And the alternate ending? Not really an alternate ending. The movie ends the same, just there's an additional scene tacked onto the final product. When I hear alternate ending, I expect something different to happen to change how the story turned out - which didn't happen here. And, as a side note, I'm sick of hearing directors talk about how they had to delete the scenes that were their favorites to film. If you like them so much why cut them? Because they didn't pass with test audiences? What does this tell you about your ability as a filmmaker?
Cold Creek Manor isn't for everybody. It presents itself as a high-minded psychological thriller, but in reality, it's nothing I haven't seen before. Perhaps Figgis should have tried to spend less time following the rules of the genre, and more time thinking outside the bun.
| The Movie: |
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5/10 |
| The Extras: |
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5/10 |
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