The Song of Names Blu Ray Review (Sony)
The Song of Names is a little slow at times but it has a great story & script. It takes you through several different years with the characters Martin & Dovidl. It goes from them being rivals, friends, family, & strangers again. They are both played by three different actors. Each performer has their own unique style to the roles but they all fit. I was very impressed by the younger Misha Handley & Luke Doyle as the leads here. I’ve never seen either one in anything before but they carried their portion of the film with no problems, they had great chemistry with each other. If you are a fan of François Girard’s previous work The Red Violin then you will most likely enjoy this. He’s great at that small music & mystery sub-genre, you don’t really see too many films like that. I am a huge fan of both Tim Roth & Clive Owen, they were leading men back in their days but it’s different now for the respected actors. I haven’t seen roles like this from either one so it was refreshing to experience these performances. Don’t expect them to be all over this feature because they mainly come in during the last act but it’s very important to the story. They were great in The Song of Names, I am hoping this small movie will get more attention after it’s home video release. This had a solid supporting cast which included Stanley Townsend, Amy Sloan (12 Monkeys), Richard Bremmer (The 13th Warrior), Eddie Izzard (Hannibal), Catherine McCormack (28 Weeks Later), & Saul Rubinek (True Romance). This one flew under the radar in the states but it’s one of the best acted films that I’ve all year with a top notch screenplay, RECOMMENDED!!!!
Let’s talk about the high definition presentation & special features from Sony! This 1080p (2.39:1) transfer looks great on blu ray. This film goes through several decades & locations so it has a variety of beautiful shots in this. It’s kinda like a time capsule from back then, it covers so much ground from those years. It has two audio options which includes English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 & English: Dolby Digital 5.1 on this release. It’s not the type of feature that’s going to blow your speakers away but the music sounds amazing on it. The dialogue is crystal clear here. It has English & English SDH subtitles.”Behind the Song of Names” is a little over 7 minutes. It has interviews with director François Girard, author Norman Lebrecht, actors Clive Owen, Tim Roth, Gerran Howell, Jonah Hauer-King, & various members of the production. They chat about the book, story, & screenplay for the production. They talk about the music & this story going on for several years with different actors playing the lead roles. Tim Roth & Clive Own go over their roles plus they discuss the story for it. “Howard Shore: Composing & Scoring” is a little over 2 minutes. It’s a conversation with the legendary composer. He chats about working on this for over two years. He talks about the story spanning over 50 years so there’s lots of different music in it. He mentions the church where he recorded the orchestra score at. “Howard Shore & Ray Chen” is a little over 3 minutes. It’s an interview with composer Howard Shore & violinist Ray Chen. They chat about how important the music is to this project. They talk about working together on it. Shore goes on about Chen’s dedication to the score & violin. It has the “Theatrical Trailer” for the film. It’s available everywhere starting today including MovieZyng.com, CHECK IT OUT!!!!
