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Click above to purchase "September" at amazon.com
September
review by Zach B.
Rated PG
Studio: MGM
Running Time: 83 minutes
Starring Denholm Elliott, Mia Farrow, Elaine Stritch,
Jack Warden, Sam Waterson, Dianne Wiest
Written and Directed by Woody Allen
Retail Price: $19.98
Features: Theatrical Trailer, Collectible Booklet
Specs: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, English Mono,
French Mono, Spanish Mono, English Closed Captions, French
Subtitles, Spanish Subtitles, Scene Selections (16
Scenes)
Lane (Mia Farrow) suffers a nervous breakdown, and goes
back to her childhood home in Vermont to calm down. There,
she starts to fall in love with a writer named Sam (Sam
Waterson), but as the film goes on, Lane has to go through
all sorts of emotions and comes to grip with a secret that
does involve her mother (Elaine Stritch) in a deep way.
The idea of "September" is a good one, but it just didn't
work for me. The movie is very intimate and basically
focuses on six characters who are all connected by guilt,
and while the characters are well developed and the story is
pretty solid, I found it boring, not shocking, tedious and
uninteresting. It's a dramatic Allen film and while Allen is
certainly capable of drama, it doesn't work here so well. I
liked the movie, but I felt it could have been better. The
dialogue and stories here are good, I just felt it didn't
add up the way I wanted to. I found it annoying and
overbearing, it just feels a bit forces, dry and too
overdramatic. Sure the themes of facing past demons is a
good one, but it went too slow and got a bit shallow.
There's a lot to take in, but there's usually too much and
it becomes a bit cluttered.
The cast here is pretty decent and a bit smaller then
most Allen films. I felt the actors lacked soul and warmth
into the characters. They do play off one another well and
have good chemistry, and seem tight-knit, but there have
been better Allen casts. You may have heard this movie was
filmed twice, as Allen wasn't happy with it the first time,
and he changed some of the cast. I wonder how good it would
have been with the old cast. Still, "September" is a
melodrama that doesn't quite get it right in the end. You
may like it, but you may not. Die-hard Allen fans only
should check it out.
"September" has a 1.851 anamorphic transfer that looks
very good. Grain and fuzziness are in some scenes, but it's
not too distracting. Colors are a little underwhelming but
the saturation is good betwen them and fleshtones. Detail is
okay and black levels are pretty good. There are scratches,
blemishes and pieces of dirt, but nothing too major. This
being an older Allen film too, it still looks pretty
impressive.
"September" also has mono tracks in English, French and
Spanish. They're not great. Dialogue is clear and easy to
hear, but fidelity is bit low. Dialogue is not distorted
either, while little sounds like crickets and rain sound
pretty good. Still, there could have been more but the
darker and more key atmosphere makes it sound pretty
suitable. A decent mono track that sort of sounds it age but
sort of doesn't. English closed captions are included plus
French and Spanish subtitles.
The full frame Theatrical Trailer and a good,
info-filled collectible booklet inside the keep case.
"September" isn't one of Allen's greatest. The transfer
here is okay and the sound is plainfully average. This is a
movie you should check out if you have to see everything
Allen or if you are interested in it or a sucker for boring
dramas.
 (3/5 - NOT included in
final score)
 (3.5/5)
 (2.5/5)
 (.5/5)
(2.5/5, NOT an average)
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