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Order this DVD from Amazon.com
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Le Divorce
(Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment)
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| DVD Release Date:
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January 27, 2004
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| Length:
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117 mins.
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| Rated:
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PG-13
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| Format:
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Widescreen (2.40:1), Full Screen (1.33:1)
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| Audio:
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English 5.1 Dolby Surround, Spanish Dolby Surround, French Dolby Surround
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| Subtitles:
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Englsih, Spanish, Captioned
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| Extras:
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n/a
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According to the tagline for Le Divorce, "everything sounds sexier in French". Well, I wish I could say that Naomi Watts and Kate Hudson, the stars of this movie, look sexier in French. Who cares. I'll say whatever the hell I please. Those two are sexy - no matter what language. They come from completely different ends of the acting spectrum, but that doesn't stop them from being pretty damn fine.
Opposite ends of the acting spectrum... What does that mean? Naomi Watts seems destined to become a great actress. (Did you see 21 Grams?) Kate Hudson, on the other hand, comes off as a bit more of a "fluffy" actress. (Too many romantic comedies.) And here's how I see Le Divorce. It was Kate Hudson's movie. I know nothing about the history of this movie, but based on what I saw, it was Kate Hudson's movie. But then, something happened - Naomi Watts became a household name. And then, the makers of this movie tried to make more out of Naomi's role, stealing some of Kate Hudson's thunder. But, they didn't really succeed. It is still Kate Hudson's movie. Don't believe the promotional material. Both Kate and Naomi are all over everything, but this is Kate's movie. Anyways, for me, the battle as to who was the real star of this movie kinda ruined it.
In Le Divorce, Hudson plays Isabel Walker. Isabel is headed to France to be with her sister Roxeanne (Watts) and to help her during her pregnancy. Just as Isabel arrives, Roxeanne's husband Charles-Henri is leaving her for another woman. What unravels is a story about the divorce. He wants a divorce, but she won't give it to him. In the midst of all of this, their two families get mixed up in it. Isabel starts a not-so-secret affair with somebody from Charles-Henri's family. And Isabel's and Roxeanne's family comes to France to try and secure a family heirloom that Charles-Henri is trying to get in the divorce settlement.
Writing this review, I'm just realizing the movie was about the divorce. Seems stupid of me not to realize that before - the title is "Le Divorce" for crying out loud. But, looking back, it's not too difficult to mix it up. There's so much going on in the movie, the divorce seems to get buried. There's the divorce, Isabel and her lover, the two families, the family heirloom. Throw in a couple of other stories involving Glenn Close and Matthew Modine and it gets even more bogged down. But dammit if Kate and Naomi aren't still sexy as hell. That's the only thing that kept me watching.
The movie did have a couple of redeeming factors. There were a couple of surprises. I won't give them away here, but I was shocked a couple of times. Looking back, the ending was a bit predictable, but I didn't even see it coming until just before it happened. Second, the ensemble cast. For an ensemble piece, everyone seemed to carry their own weight.
The DVD however was a bit of a disappointment. Absolutely no special features. For a movie with so many big names involved, we get nothing. No commentary. No featurettes. And don't be fooled by the description at Amazon.com. It says there are trailers, but there are none. All you get here is the movie, available to watch in either widescreen and full screen. What a rip.
So, this movie is an odd one. It doesn't seem to know what it is. Is it a Kate Hudson movie or a Naomi Watts movie? They call it a romantic comedy, but it's hardly romantic - hell it's almost depressing at times. And the movie goes in 10 different directions at the same time. While it's a well-intentioned story and it's well acted, it's constructed very poorly. And on top of all this, the DVD is bare. There's nothing there to help us figure out what the filmmakers were thinking.
So, beware. This movie is completely different from what you might expect. It may have been cute, but much like the marriage depicted here, there was nothing that could save this movie - no matter how sexy Kate or Naomi might be.
| The Movie: |
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4/10 |
| The Extras: |
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0/10 |
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