Review of Gossip

Introduction

Excuse the cheap pun, but I`d not heard any gossip about "Gossip" until I sat down to watch it the other day. A young cast (James Marsden, Lena Headey doing a reasonably good American accent, Norman Reedus, Kate Hudson, Marisa Coughlan and Joshua Jackson) gives the initial impression of another teen movie. Which it is. And it isn`t.

A reasonable plot, not without its holes, twists and turns its way through the film, as a rumour started by three students makes its way across a University campus, before things start to get out of hand. Who will be the real victims of the gossip?

Video

An absolutely excellent 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer, and I couldn`t find any fault with it. No artefacts, no dirt on the print, no colour problems, no brightness problems, etc. etc. etc.

The picture looks very good indeed, and once again Canada does a credible job of being a cheaper-to-film-in version of America.

I`ve never seen students who live in apartments like those in this film though, even if they did have loads of money!

One extra bonus for region 2 viewers is that I believe the region 1 version only contained a 1.85:1 transfer, so we get to see all of the picture.

Audio

A DD5.1 soundtrack that does its job well. The full range of channels are not used to maximum effect at all times, but there are some nice surround whispering effects, and plenty of bass during the bar and party scenes.

Not a demo disc but certainly adequate given the needs of the film itself.

Features

For a smaller film it would be no surprise to find that they`ve skimped on the extras. But not a bit of it, as we get a whole bunch of them served up.

The biggest is the audio commentary by director Davis Guggenheim (yes, that`s his real name) and actor James Marsden (Derek Webb). There`s plenty of interesting information imparted here, and it`s worth watching the film again to pick up on a few points that you might be wondering about after the first viewing. Plenty of stories about filming, pre-production and more. Worth a listen.

Next up we have deleted scenes. Unfortunately these are all bunched up into one chapter, so navigation isn`t easy if you want to go back and watch one again. I won`t go into details of the scenes themselves. Three of the scenes were removed for time purposes, whilst another was removed for different reasons. There`s also a full version of a scene that is slickly edited during the film. The scenes are all quite rough in terms of quality, and have silly copyright information stamped all over them too.

There`s also an alternate ending which I won`t talk about, but you`ll see why it wasn`t used when you watch it. There`s also a very good trailer for the film included here, but if you can resist the temptation then watch it after you`ve watched the film.

There`s also the "Grab Bag", which is not a free bag of crisps, but another 11 or so minute chapter featuring three different items. Is it that hard to add chapter stops? Inside the bag you`ll find two music videos which are reasonably enjoyable, plus two versions of the "Gossip Montage sequence".

And finally there are "interviews", which are actually the interviews conducted during the film by Travis. Not very interesting but you`ll see why they were included.

Despite all of these extras, I still feel that I have to have a little moan, because the video and audio quality is not great on most of them. Whilst this can be understood for some of the features, it is not acceptable for others.

Conclusion

Difficult to sum this film up, so I`ll start with the disc. Technically a very good disc, with excellent picture, good sound and a good range of extras (although their quality doesn`t always match that of the main feature).

As for the film itself - well it will probably surprise you. It`s certainly enjoyable and has plenty to keep you interested for the duration. There are some interesting little twists and turns along the way, as well as a few little plot holes which may have you scratching your head.

Definitely worth a rental, and with plenty of extras coupled with a high chance of you watching again, it would also be a reasonable purchase.