Review of Tuesdays With Morrie

Introduction

Tuesdays with Morrie tells the story of a very popular professor, now retired who is struck down by a terminal illness. Morrie was an inspiration to his students, and one of them, hard-nose sports reporter Mitch Albom hears about Morries plight and eventually makes space in his hectic schedule to visit his old friend.

His visit changes both of their lives and Morrie still has plenty of lessons for Mitch, who returns to see him every Tuesday, before the illness finally kills the professor.

Both lead actors won Emmys for their performances in this drama, which was Lemmon`s last film before he died of cancer last year.

Video

Tuesdays with Morrie is a TV movie, and is presented in 4:3 full-frame on this DVD. The picture is crisp and stable, with no dirt or grain, and no sign of compression problems.

As far as the visuals go, the film concentrates on the two main characters, played by Lemmon and Azaria, and the filmmakers perfectly capture both men`s emotions as they try to come to terms with Morrie`s illness. Otherwise the visuals are run-of-the-mill, and only spoiled by the all-to-obvious fade-outs that TV movies have to accommodate numerous advert breaks.

Audio

The soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital Stereo, and although is perfectly reproduces the dialogue of the main characters, along with effects and music, I thought it was merely average and didn`t hear anything special enough to justify the Emmy (and numerous other) nominations it received.

My only complaint about the sound is a serious lip-synch issue on Oprah Winfrey`s introduction to the film - luckily this disappears as soon as the main credits roll and does not affect the main feature.

Features

The extras aren`t especially exciting and consist of an introduction by Oprah Winfrey (more about that later), the trailer for this film and three others, plus some textual information about the film and the stars - not very exciting.

The disc is packaged in a clear Amaray case, which contains details of the 14 chapter breaks.

Conclusion

Working for DVD Reviewer sees a varied selection of movies drop through my letterbox every week, some that I really look forward to and some that I dread putting into my DVD player. One look at the "Oprah Winfrey Presents" banner across the top of the box for Tuesdays With Morrie put this film firmly in the latter category, and to be honest, I`ve been avoiding watching it. When I finally got round to playing the disc earlier this evening, I was presented with a vomit-inducing introduction from Oprah which almost had me reaching for the eject button and putting it off for another day. What a BIG mistake that would have been…

Tuesdays with Morrie is a superb film. The subject matter may appear to be depressing, but the way in which the story is told provides doesn`t allow the viewer to dwell on the inevitable until it finally happens. But first and foremost, Tuesdays with Morrie is a heartfelt, very moving drama which delivers two staggering performances from the male leads - Jack Lemmon and Hank Azaria. Both won Emmys for their roles in this film, and it is easy to see why straight from the word go. Lemmon`s portrayal of a terminally ill man is nothing short of incredible and only emphasises what a sad loss he was to the world of film when he died last year. Azaria`s portrayal of sports reporter Mitch Albom who used to be Morrie`s student is equally strong and the two are electric when on-screen together. As the story develops, the strength of the two characters draws you into the film as it heads towards its sad climax, which is very moving, and WILL have the tears welling up in your eyes, and your throat tightening, no matter how macho you think you are.

Overall an excellent drama with superb performances, an excellent script and which is well presented on this DVD.