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Released by: Heretic Films
Released on: 7/25/2006
Director: Warren Amerman
Cast: David Joseph, Amy Shelton-White, Robert Weingartner, Sanjiban Sellew
Year: 2006
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The Movie:
Magdalena Welling (Amy Shelton-White of the dreadul Sasquatch Hunters) and her husband Arthur (Sanjiban Sellew) seemed like a promising young couple, both with big things on the horizon in the medical field where they were employed. When Arthur decides to use himself as a human guinea pig to test out his memory enhancement expermiments, he accidentily wipes out a good chunk of his mind and more or less turns his head into mush. This puts her in the awkward place of having to take care of him, which is no small task, in addition to continuing with her life's work.
Over time, Magdalena, being rather handy herself, turns an old warehouse into a secret laboratory where she hopes to not only continue the work that her husband had started but also to find a cure for him in order to put things back to the way that they once were. They manage to communicate through a complex piece of machinery and finally seem to be on the path to success when they manage to, through the use of some high tech computers, figure out a way to take his mind out of his body and put it into someone elses but in order to make that work, they'll have to find that someone else in the first place…
An interesting, if restrained, science fiction piece, Magdalena's Brain is a smart film that bites off just a bit more than its obvioulsy limited budget will allow it to chew. The premise, or at least the twists in the premise that come in later on towards the finale, are fairly surprising and the performance from Amy Shelton-White is good enough to carry the film, but there are spots where you might find yourself pulled out of the moment a little bit by either some wonkiness in the sets or technology used or an out of place supporting actor or two.
The best part of the movie is the atmosphere that the cinematographer creates once the location switches to the old warehouse that Magdalena takes over. This is a fantastic set, one that the filmmakers make the most out of to pleasing effect. The building has got some serious mood just seemingly built into it, which makes the story, which is interesting enough to begin with, a little more effective than it would have been if it were shot in a more clinical environment.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that Magdalena's Brain receives on this disc is a bit of a mixed bag, but thankfully the bad outweighs the good. Black levels are strong throughout, even too strong as they tend to muddy up the fine detail in a couple of darker spots. Aliasing is present but never overbearing while edge enhancement and mpeg compression artifacts are not once problematic. There's a bit of softness here and there but nothing to worry about as it's an occasional issue and not a constant one. Overall the image is pretty clean and pretty sharp.
The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track does a pretty nice job with the score and the dialogue though there are one or two scenes in the movie where the levels get a bit funky and the performers get buried just a bit in the rest of the mix. Thankfully this happens rarely and it's never so severe as to make the dialogue unintelligible. Aside from that, no complaints here. For the most part things sound good, there are no problems with hiss or distortion, and the music sounds nice and punchy.
Warren Ameran and Marty Langford contribute a commentary track that is pretty much your standard discussion as to how the movie was made. They cover everything that you'd expect them to, from locations to casting to working within the confines of their low budget and more. It's a fairly active talk that won't really rock your world but which will give you more information on the origins of the film if that's what you're after.
Rounding out the supplements is a video diary that gives us a look at how things played out on set during production, a few expository scenes that were taken out of the final version of the movie (text blurbs tell us why they were taken out - a nice touch), and an awful music video that is really nothing more than a guy with a guitar singing about the movie. It's odd, out of place, and poorly done but if you subscribe to the quantity over quality theory, dig in. Three brief featurettes (they're between two and five minutes each) give us a look at a few specific aspects of the production in a bit more detail than is allowed in the commentary track. A selection of trailers for other Heretic Films is included, as are the standard menus and chapter stop options we all know and love.
The Final Word:
Magdalena's Brain has a few problems but the idea behind it is an interesting one and the execution of that idea works more often than it doesn't. It's a unqiue movie, even if its far from perfect, with a few fine twists that differentiate it from your average low budget film and some nice visuals as well. Heretic does their usual fine job on the disc - if you're into independent or low budget filmmaking, this is worth a look.