Review of Down To You

Introduction

Starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Julia Stiles, Down To You is a teen rom-com. The plot, such as it is, is fairly basic. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, do all the things young lovers do and then realise they are too young to be tied to one partner and split up. You can, of course, guess the ending.

Video

The video is given a nice anamorphic transfer. It isn’t exceptional but you will have nothing to complain about. The cinematography is pretty good too. The film is set in New York and the film does everything it can to portray the city as glisteningly romantic. Some of the night-time scenes are gorgeous, as are the scenes in Central Park.

Audio

Audio is disappointing. It is a DD 5.1 soundtrack but I only noticed one (gratuitous) use of the rears. Also, everything sounds slightly muffled. It is not terrible (and you do get used to it); it is just bad enough to make you think that it could be better.

Features

On the face of it, this DVD has a nice complement of extras. You get a Billie Myers music video (Down To You), the usual trailers and TV Spots, copious cast interviews and an “On The Set” feature. Reality is not quite so good. The trailer is pretty naff and, if you couldn’t already guess the ending, pretty much gives it away. The cast interviews are truly boring. The cast are uniformly dull and sycophantic (including Henry Winkler, who has well and truly left his cool Fonz persona behind) and add nothing to the film.

The “On The Set” piece is truly baffling. I was expecting one of the usual on-location documentaries. No. What you get is some random footage, poorly edited, from a scene. You see actors acting and crew milling about behind the camera. No narration; no insight; nothing.

If you like Billie Myers song, the video is fine.

Conclusion

This is the strangest teen rom-com I have ever seen (I haven’t seen that many). The narrative is somewhat freeform. The story doesn’t begin – it just starts; it doesn’t end – it just stops. The bit in the middle doesn’t flow naturally – it just feels like a collection of scenes. I’ll be kind to the filmmakers and accept that this is some kind of statement on how life really it. But, as a film, it doesn’t really hang together.

Also, it seems to be trying to be daring. Some scenes are just bizarre. For example, we cut from a civilised chat to a close up of a nipple being pierced.

While it is just a collection of scenes, rather than a coherent film, some of the scenes are quite good. The scenes that use New York as a romantic device are well done. Some of the musings on young/first love are well observed and, I’ll confess that one particularly poignant scene had me just a little choked up.

The cast is probably intended to be quirky and “real” but they come across as unsympathetic. The leads (Prinze and Stiles) are bland. I fail to see the appeal of Prinze – he spends the film smirking. Stiles is more appealing and is a slightly more natural actress (she also has remarkably crooked teeth for a young American actress) but is given little to work with in the script. Henry Winkler hams it up with his new trademark: the cardigan-wearing nice guy. Come back Fonzie.

This is by no means a good film but I can’t write it off completely. Some scenes look good and are reasonably entertaining. It certainly isn’t a DVD you would want to buy but, if there nothing else in Blockbuster, it might be worth renting – especially if you belong to the target teen demogrraphic.