Plot: What’s it about?
Rebecca (Floriane Daniel) lives in a lush mountain villa, where the view is gorgeous and the slopes are never closed. She shares the place with her boyfriend Marco (Heino Ferch), who works as a ski instructor and loves Rebecca with all of his heart. But this spread is not owned by these lovers however, as Rebecca’s friend Laura (Marie-Lou Sellem) has the deed, although she lets them crash there with no real worries, since she’s a good friend. In addition to owning some property, Laura also works as nurse, which is part of the reason she ends up involved in a real mess. The trouble starts when Marco’s car is stolen by Theo (Josef Bierbichler), who ends up in a car crash with disastrous results. The accident of course caused him some suffering, but in the other car was a young girl, who lies in a coma. But Theo doesn’t remember what happened and as time passes, he begins to get along well with Rene, who is of course, a nurse. Now Marco is on the hunt for the person who stole his car, while the young girl’s father searches for the man who almost killed his daughter, but how will all these loose threads come together?
I had never seen Winter Sleepers, but I was looking forward to viewing this disc, although I was let down from the start. This disc uses an incorrect widescreen form, which imbalances the film’s visuals and makes it harder to watch, which really ticked me off. But once I focused on the movie itself, I was taken in by Winter Sleepers and aside from a few flaws, I liked this picture more than I expected to. The pace will discourage some viewers, as it moves at a slow speed, but never too slow and the movie always manages to hold your attention, so no worries on that end. But I can see how some wanting a more frenetic movie would be offset, as this is a deliberate and well planned procession of images and events. In other words, if you need constant action or stimulation, this is not your movie, as it focuses on storyline and character. I found the film’s momentum to be excellent, as it moved a rather slow clip, but you could sense the building of it all and that adds a lot of suspense, which is of course welcome. I like this flick more than enough to recommend it, but with such a lackluster disc, I think a rental is all this one’s worth.
At the helm of Winter Sleepers is director Tom Tykwer, who became well known for a film made after this one, Run Lola Run. I can see why some people would view this movie and expect a film like Lola, but they would be mistaken, to say the least. Although the themes of fate and love are explored in both pictures, the movies take different approaches to the topics, very different approaches. Whereas Lola is a bursting at the seams frenetic adventure, Winter Sleepers sort of slowly rolls along and builds up steam, never too quick in the least however. I feel this speaks volumes about Tykwer’s talent, as he uses both slow and fast paces with equal skill, very impressive indeed. I look forward to his future projects and hope to see another flick from Tykwer soon. You can also see Tykwer’s direction in Deadly Maria, Heaven, and The Princess and The Warrior. The cast of Winter Sleepers includes Ulrich Matthes (Framed, Fire Rider), Floriane Daniel (A Fine Romance), Heino Ferch (The Green Desert, Run Lola Run), Josef Bierbichler (Heart of Glass, Woyzeck), and Marie-Lou Sellem (Places in Cities).
Video: How does it look?
Winter Sleepers is presented in a 1.85:1 widescreen transfer, which is not enhanced for widescreen televisions. This is strange indeed, as the film’s original aspect ratio is 2.35:1, so Winstar has chosen to not simply pan & scan this one, but use an incorrect widescreen format, very strange indeed. This mean more undesired space at the top and bottom of the frame, which in turn throws off the entire visual compositions of the scenes. But that isn’t all here, as the image looks very soft and shows more compression flaws than I’ll overlook. So as if the wrong widescreen format wasn’t enough here, the image never sparks much either, which leaves me to score this one on the low end, very low in fact.
Audio: How does it sound?
At least the audio is presented in the original German language, with optional English subtitles in case you’ll need those. The film’s musical score is very good and sounds rich here, but the rest of the elements seem average at best. Not much in terms of range or dynamic presence here, just an unmemorable, but sufficient audio track. It might not be much, but the dialogue is clean and crisp, which means it at least sounds better than it looks.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This disc includes some filmographies and the film’s theatrical trailer, but no other extras were stuffed in this one.
