First viewing, this was way different and way better than I had expected from the user reviews that I have read, while not being in the top 33% of features ever made, this is middling.
The ending. MT, the central actress, is again looking her true age, 18ish, despite all that has gone before. Something to shrug off as other than that it is a neat ending. Except that second viewing the dive at the start was her character at age 23ish and the ending is around a year later. It fits. I had been confused by comments that maybe referred to the novel rather than to this adaptation?
Symbolism as a bigger problem. I assume that the dive can be interpreted as symbolic of something fairly commonplace and that symbols such as 23 and 35 and library books and dressmaking are liable to be around. MT Carrie really being 18 fits this aspect really well. Stories often get carried away by symbolism to the detriment of the story and that does not happen in this case, but I would still have preferred this set with Carrie as age 18 to 19. I can like this story, the symbolism does not mess things up.
A drawback with the DVD is that it is region 1 and 4x3 and interlaced. Not so unusual with MT stuff. It can still look good even though it should look even better. It looks as if part was filmed on reel and part on videotape? Replaying on a Blu-ray compatible computer system improves the quality, for me.
The DVD sleeves for both this and The Circuit suggest that these 2010 releases might have been encouraged by Trachtenberg fans taking an interest and if so I cannot complain. A fan can hope that these lead to more being released.
***
The acting quality. Approach this as an MT fan and her opening and end comments can stick out painfully, but the rest is very okay. I do get this tangle with some fan stuff.
Other than that, I got this DVD as a fan thing and do not consider my purchase as a waste, I had been hoping to get an affordable copy of this disk for some time. I have qualms but they are not over-riding.
Re-watch this in 2015 and I am finding it to be much better than a lot of stuff that I have seen recently. I am glad that I purchased my disk.
The ending. MT, the central actress, is again looking her true age, 18ish, despite all that has gone before. Something to shrug off as other than that it is a neat ending. Except that second viewing the dive at the start was her character at age 23ish and the ending is around a year later. It fits. I had been confused by comments that maybe referred to the novel rather than to this adaptation?
Symbolism as a bigger problem. I assume that the dive can be interpreted as symbolic of something fairly commonplace and that symbols such as 23 and 35 and library books and dressmaking are liable to be around. MT Carrie really being 18 fits this aspect really well. Stories often get carried away by symbolism to the detriment of the story and that does not happen in this case, but I would still have preferred this set with Carrie as age 18 to 19. I can like this story, the symbolism does not mess things up.
A drawback with the DVD is that it is region 1 and 4x3 and interlaced. Not so unusual with MT stuff. It can still look good even though it should look even better. It looks as if part was filmed on reel and part on videotape? Replaying on a Blu-ray compatible computer system improves the quality, for me.
The DVD sleeves for both this and The Circuit suggest that these 2010 releases might have been encouraged by Trachtenberg fans taking an interest and if so I cannot complain. A fan can hope that these lead to more being released.
***
The acting quality. Approach this as an MT fan and her opening and end comments can stick out painfully, but the rest is very okay. I do get this tangle with some fan stuff.
Other than that, I got this DVD as a fan thing and do not consider my purchase as a waste, I had been hoping to get an affordable copy of this disk for some time. I have qualms but they are not over-riding.
Re-watch this in 2015 and I am finding it to be much better than a lot of stuff that I have seen recently. I am glad that I purchased my disk.