All and all, this is a relatively slow week for new DVD releases, although not entirely without merit.
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An unabashed, even old-fashioned humanist film, Monsieur Ibrahim tells the story of a grizzled, white-haired grocer (Omar Sharif) in a Paris working-class neighbourhood in the 1960s, a gentle man who provides the wisdom of his 70 years to a lonely and depressed young Jewish boy. Surprising and ironic at times, the movie insists that what is important is the interior life of the individual, the cultivation of a deep spirituality. The best new video release this week.
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Less worthy, but bound to find an eager group of renters (given that it’s star is teen heartthrob Ashton Kutcher), The Butterfly Effect is, as the Hollywood Reporter suggests, “an entertaining piece of supernatural nonsense whose sheer audacity disarms all (well, nearly all) skepticism.” With off-putting subject matter (maiming, murder and kiddie porn), The Butterfly Effect is maybe not a movie for the whole family.
Otherwise, this may be the week to consider renting a DVD that you missed earlier in the year. VanRamblings offers the following for your consideration: the sweet, funny and empowering Calendar Girls; the magnificent Oscar nominated film, In America; the engaging and understated period drama, Girl With A Pearl Earring; as well as the magical new version of Peter Pan, and the compellingly watchable epic, The Last Samurai.
