DVD Reviews: Killing Me Softly

Chen Kaige's passionate thriller Killing Me Softly is a cross between Hitchcock meets Adrian Lyne's 9 1/2 weeks in an intensive sexual thriller that keeps you guessing from start to finish. When American web page designer Alice (Heather Graham) becomes involved in a steamy love affair with a stranger she met on the streets of London, her life is soon turned into one of mystery and sexual passion. After leaving her boyfriend of many years and marrying the mysterious mountain climber hero Adam (Joseph Fiennes), her perfect world is soon thrown into chaos after receiving a mysterious letter regarding her husbands past.

Not even the intensive sexual chemistry between the newly weds can prevent Alice from exploring Adam's past and the more she discovers, the more dangerous her world becomes. The mountain climbing incident that Adam was involved in over two years ago soon turns into a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Director Chen Kaige does a magnificent job at directing this sexual thriller that really keeps you guessing throughout the movie. Although the movie still involves the usual suspects, it is also a story about a relationships and how one wrong event can haunt you throughout your entire life. Kaige also chose his actors wisely as the chemistry between Graham and Fiennes is brilliant as these two actors carry the movie perfectly for 102 minutes. The movie is also based in London and Kaige does a wonderful job at exploring the countryside's of England and even the city itself.

The video quality of Killing Me Softly is flawless and there was no artefacting at all throughout the entire movie. The colours were sharp and Kaige does a brilliant job at taking the movie from light to dark and then light again. Black's were black and white's were white. Perfect! The movie is presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen but appears that some of the footage from the sides have been removed to fit this title onto "normal" television sets.

The sound quality of Killing Me Softly supports Dolby Digital 5.1 and thoroughly makes use of the satellite speakers for a great movie experience. The soundtrack by Patrick Doyle is extremely suited to the movie and help the viewers relate to the characters, especially the love theme for Alice and Adam.

Killing Me Softly contains some "soft" special features that include Cast & Crew commentaries that give us an insight into the characters in the movie, scene selections, a very short featurette and a strange but silent Behind the scenes and last but not least the cinema trailers. The special features themselves don't go for a considerable amount of time but considering that this is not a science fiction movie, they nicely go hand in hand with the main feature of this DVD.

Killing me Softly is a traditional thriller that contains some twists and turns throughout the movie with some great acting by Graham and Fiennes. The movie also includes actress Natacha McElhone (Solaris) as Adam's brother for yet another stellar role in the movie that really helps link the trio together. Highly Recommended.

- Andrew B