Plot: What’s it about?
At the top of her game, Heidi Fleiss (Jamie Lynn DeScala) had it all. She had more money than she could ever spend, a lavish lifestyle of leisure, and she even had connections with celebrities. But at her lowest, she was scraping the bottom of the barrel to survive and when her empire collapsed, she had to leave all of her money and power behind. Before she was a high level Madame in Hollywood’s most frequented brothel, she wasn’t rich or famous, not even close. She was a call girl herself and through a rocky, but constant relationship with the former owner of the brothel, she was handed the kingdom. If she had played her cards right, she could have been untouchable, but that’s wouldn’t be the case. Instead, Fleiss allowed addictions to sex and narcotics to cloud her mind and by turn, made some terrible decisions. But before we pass judgment, let’s examine The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss in Call Me…
This is the kind of project that has a high smut factor, but low drawing power, which means a made for cable presentation is in order. That means an audience will be there, but the smut has to be toned down and in this case, that could be terrible news. After all, this movie is about a brothel to the stars and a lifestyle of sex, cocaine, and wild abandon. In order to bring that kind of tale to life, you need free reign to show off sex and drug use, not common elements on basic cable. The drug use is much heavier than expected, which a consistent flow of white powder being snorted. The sex on the other hand isn’t as graphic, though numerous sex scenes do take place, mostly with body doubles. Call Me isn’t a character study on Fleiss, instead it makes her out to be a lost little girl who makes some poor decisions. As much as we want to believe that, the film’s case is weak and the director chose to focus on style over substance. Even so, The Sopranos star Jamie Lynn DiScalia looks hot and in this case, that alone warrants a rental.
Video: How does it look?
Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, with a full frame version included on the disc’s flip side. This is a very nice transfer, which is a vast improvement over the film’s presentation on television. The colors look bright and bold, with no real errors to report and the flesh tones emerge in fine form as well. No problems with the contrast either, detail level looks good and the black shades appear well balanced. No source print damage or compression errors either, this is a very good treatment for a made for cable flick.
Audio: How does it sound?
Dolby Digital 5.1 option is the solo soundtrack and while passable, this movie just isn’t audio gold, so the track never gets off the ground. The film’s music makes good use of the surround channels, as do the somewhat sparse sound effects. A few scenes do add a little spark, but don’t expect a lot of dynamic presence here. I don’t fault this sound mix though, as the material just never pushes the action too much. The dialogue is sharp and crisp at all times as well, no problems to discuss here. This disc also includes subtitles in English and Spanish, should you need those.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This disc includes no bonus materials.
