Review of Goodbye Charlie Bright

Introduction

Goodbye Charlie Bright tells the story of the relationship between Charlie and Justin over four hot days. It can be seen as a slice of life if you like, of their relationship and what they want out of life and as the story develops, we get to see more of Charlie and Justin with their friends in situations. It`s interesting the way the story is told, like a rites-of-passage story in someways and there`s nothing complicated in this movie at all. Thankfully it`s pretty straightforward to understand.

Video

We get a very good 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer here. There`s good use of colour throughout and these are all well rendered with sharp detail and high contrast. It`s a very good transfer with solid blacks coming through nicely. There were very few minor encoding problems with scenes of fast motion, but luckily there isn`t a lot of this going on. In general I didn`t see any other problems at all with the film transfer and it was a pleasure to watch.

Lastly, there was a very noticeable layer change towards the end of the film which is a shame. It`s a slight pause but still enough to make you take notice.

Audio

We have a choice of DD5.1 or DD2.0. The 5.1 mix is very dynamic, especially in the opening scene, and the sounds are well placed. For the most part the dialogue is pretty clear, but I had to wind back a few times just to get the gist of the south London accents. Hey what can I say, I`m a north London boy and subtitles would have helped! The DD2.0 is okay but clearly lacking the punch of 5.1.

Features

Goodbye Charlie Bright has a cool front end for the menu which uses almost the whole screen giving us Scene Access, Special Features and Audio Options. Scene Access works in the same way as another Metrodome title, 101 Reykjavik, where the whole screen is a scene from the film and changes to show you each chapter. While nice, it can be a little slow going.

So what Special Features do we get? There`s a trailer, Director Commentary with writer/director Nick Love, Filmographies, B/Roll, Storyboards and Production Notes. The trailer is the usual thing and I`d say stay away from it until you`ve seen the movie, it`ll spoil things otherwise. Filmographies cover the main cast and crew as text bios and quite a few of these contain interview clips to play too. It might have been better to put these interviews together under one selectable option though.

The Director Commentary with Writer/Director Nick Love is interesting. He talks a lot of the story and why it`s told the way it is and then talks about the film production. Pretty interesting to listen to as he`s quite honest (particularly with language!), and it`s certainly different from other commentary tracks I`ve listened to.

The interview with Paul Nicholls is interesting in only that he`s in character while he talks and he`s quite amusing. Fans of Human Traffic may remember Danny Dyer delivering his wicked diatribe on Peter Andre while in the back of a cab and here he`s a little more grown up. These interviews are too short and you can just see that there`s more which hasn`t been included by interviews being cut short.

B/Roll is about eight minutes of video showing the production unit, crew and cast. I have to be honest when I say that this really isn`t worth watching. There`s no explanation as to why it`s included in the first place and there`s only eight minutes of it. No commentary on what`s going on and no one talks to the camera so we feel distanced. What`s the point? It`s a shame this wasn`t properly conceived as I`m not likely to look at it again.

Storyboards provides four storyboard comparisons to the final cut. Not really a great deal to see here with just four scenes though. Production Notes presents us with quite a few interesting pages to read about the production of the film. I`d rather read a proper inserted sleevenote since it`s easier to read and gives a better feeling of added value.

Lastly in Audio Options we get a choice of DD5.1 or DD2.0. Note that there aren`t any subtitles on the UK edition, though this could be the review copy I`m looking at. One quirky thing I noted on this DVD is that if you go to the menu, take a look around, and then play the film, the DVD reverts to the Director Commentary audio track. You then have to toggle this off to watch the movie. The film starts automatically with the 5.1 sound option when you first insert the disc though. It`s a minor niggle. :-)

Conclusion

The first thing that will grab you about this film as you start watching it is the opening scene with the thumping music. It works so well in setting up the start of the movie, that if you`re anything like me, you`ll probably pump up the sound to almost bursting point! It`s a good way to start the film.

Goodbye Charlie Bright was a movie which passed me by completely the first time around, probably due to the fact that it`s a British film and had limited distribution. It`s an enjoyable and fun movie from start to finish, with good performances from the cast. Phil Daniels it seems is always typecast as a nutter and Dani Behr makes an appearance which unfortunately is all too short. She plays the love interest which is sadly underdeveloped as it would have been nice if this could have been worked in to the film to add another element. This film doesn`t look like a typical British movie. It`s made with a wide canvas in 2.35:1 so there`s a sense of scale and a good job has been made of getting a lot of colour and life into the film.

The special features here aren`t really special at all and could have been improved upon. B/Roll and Filmographies give a taste of the footage which seems to be available but for some reason all we get is a little taster and nothing more. This aspect of the DVD is disappointing. The only saving grace of the special features is Nick Love`s commentary. He`s refreshingly honest and doesn`t mince his words.

Despite the somewhat disappointing Special Features, Goodbye Charlie Bright is an enjoyable film. It`s easy to watch, has good pacing and looks and sounds good too. However I don`t think it has a lot of replay value so perhaps not worth buying, but it`s worth renting.