MILDRED PIERCE comes to DVD

DVDs for Jan. 3 by Boo Allen

This week, we begin with Mildred:

Mildred Pierce (****)

One of the best TV productions last year was this five part HBO
mini-series starring Kate Winslet in an Emmy Winning role as the
title character. Based on James Cain’s novel, it garnered 21 Emmy
nominations, taking home five. In 1941, Mildred Pierce is married to
Bert (Brian F. O’Byrne), but they separate, leaving her to support
her young daughter Veda (Morgan Turner) on her own. After trying her
hand as a waitress, Mildred opens her own restaurant. Its success
leads to another location and financial security, but it causes
resentment in her now older daughter (Evan Rachel Wood). Meanwhile,
Mildred becomes involved with handsome playboy Monty Beragon (Emmy
winning Guy Pearce). Eventually Veda comes to resent her working
class mother, no matter how hard Mildred pleas for her approval.
Director Todd Haynes captures the dangerous and destructive
mother-and-daughter dynamic, while creating a colorful and flavorful
1940s Los Angeles.

Rated TV-MA, 341 minutes. The two disc set also comes in a four disc
collector’s edition with two DVD copies. Also included are
commentaries, a comprehensive 28 minute “making of” featurette,
and each segment has a five minute or so “Inside the Episode”
featurette
The Guard (***1/2)

Brendan Gleeson, who always seems to turn up in these under-appreciated jewels, stars as Sgt.
Gerry Boyle, the title character, a policeman in western Ireland who
finds himself in the middle of a drug smuggling operation.
Fortunately for him, the three main smugglers (Mark Strong, Liam
Cunnigham, David Wilmot, all excellent and all hilarious) had rather
trade Nietzsche quotes than pay attention to their task. F.B.I. agent
Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) joins Boyle, as the Irishman consorts
with prostitutes, drinks too much, and takes drugs to his dying,
hospitalized mother (Fionnula Flanagan). In addition, several other
sub-plots involving prostitutes, a murdered policeman, and I.R.A.
weaponry mix in. Writer-director John Michael McDonagh juggles black
humor, often biting dialogue, and action along with a deft
psychological portrait.

Rated R, 96 minutes. The DVD,
also on Blu-ray, offers a 19 minute “making of” featurette, three
deleted scenes, three minutes of outtakes, 12 extended and alternate
scenes, and 18 minutes with Cheadle, Gleeson, and McDonagh at the Los
Angeles Film Festival. Plus: “Second Death,” the 12 minute short
film that paved the way for The Guard, featuring some
of the same characters and actors.
On Demand Warner Archive releases two titles with notable literary roots:

Edward My Son (***)

Always excellent Spencer Tracy stars in this production of actor Robert Morley and Noel Langley’s
somber stage play. Speaking straight into the camera, Tracy relates
his life story in flashback, telling about his son, Edward, never
seen, who seemed to have shaped the lives of the father and mother
(Deborah Kerr). The father struggled to become a successful London
businessman, cutting corners and bending if not breaking the law. All
the while, it becomes obvious his life revolves around his son, who
reportedly becomes as selfish and arrogant as his father. (1949, 113
minutes)

Youngblood Hawke
(**1/2) This deliciously trashy melodrama, highly popular in 1964 as
well as Herman Wouk’s source novel, starred uber-handsome,
embarrassingly wooden James Franciscus as the ridiculously named
title character. A Kentucky coal truck driver who migrates to
Manhattan upon the publication of his novel, Youngblood, né
Arthur, quickly follows a tragic career path of quick success
succeeded by failure and public humiliation. Along the way, he
succumbs to the charms of a beautiful married woman (Genevieve Page,
who gets to utter the line “Kees me as only my wild Hawke can”)
while not recognizing the greater charms of his editor (Suzanne
Pleshette). Gloriously entertaining nonsense. (137 minutes).

I Don’t Know How She Does It (**1/2)

Mothers will appreciate the pluck and determination of Kate Reddy (Sarah Jessica Parker). She
wants it all and has it all. She works as a high-powered Boston
banker and has two young children at home. Her faithful husband
Richard (Greg Kinnear) loves her and supports her, even when her job
threatens to encroach on their serenity. Pierce Brosnan plays the
sympathetic corporate big shot who might pose a temptation to Kate.
Director Douglas McGrath rarely takes the film out of its comfort
zone, rendering a series of scenes that will be familiar to all
mothers and probably to the readers of Allison Pearson’s source
novel. Christina Hendricks plays the best friend, who, addressing the
camera much like Spencer Tracy in Edward My Son,
comments on her friend Kate.

Rated PG-13, 90 minutes. The DVD, also on Blu-ray, has a seven minute interview with novelist
Pearson.
And, finally, from this week’s
TV offerings:

Ice Quake (**1/2)

A geologist (Brendan Fehr) and his wife (Holly Dignard) and daughter (Jodelle Ferland) and son (Ryan
Grantham) find themselves trapped on an Alaskan mountain when dad
learns he will be called upon to save the planet when a succession of
“ice geysers” pop up, shooting gas into the air and causing
quakes and massive breaks in the ice sheets. Blame it on underground
methane, or something. The family, and even the dog, becomes
separated. But the local military, including Victor Garber, just
might discover a solution. This film originally premiered on the Syfy
channel and its special effects rank about average for a TV movie.

Rated PG, 90 minutes. The DVD, also on Blu-ray, includes a comprehensive 27 minute “making of”
featurette.

Justified—season two

As our week’s top TV-Series-To-DVD is about to return for its third season, its Emmy
Award-winning second season of 13 episodes, on three discs, now
arrives. When last season ended with the death of Bo Crowder (M.C.
Gainey), it looked like it would solve the problems of U.S. Marshall
Raylan Givens (Emmy nominee Timothy Olyphant). But Kentucky’s Bennett
clan (including jittery Jeremy Davies and Emmy winning Margo
Martindale) proves more resilient, further protecting their drug and
moonshine monopolies with weekly violence. Other sub-plots play out
in this flavorful series based on an Elmore Leonard story and filled
with some of the most exotic characters on television.

Not rated, 547 minutes. The set, also on Blu-ray, includes deleted scenes and outtakes, and three
featurettes: “ “On the Set,” “Clans, Feuds and Apple Pie”
and, on the Blu-ray, a “Talking Shop” roundtable discussion.

 
Also on DVD: Contagion, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, The Last Lions.