The Ticket (Blu-ray Review)
A captivating tale of desire and perception, Ido Fluk’s The Ticket will make its Blu-ray and DVD debut on June 6th, 2017 from Shout! Factory. Starring Dan Stevens (Beauty and the Beast, FX series Legion), Malin Akerman (Billions, Watchmen), Kerry Bishé (Halt and Catch Fire, Argo) and Oliver Platt (Chicago Med, Fargo). Dan Stevens is having himself a pretty big first half of 2017, part of the massively successful live action take on Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (as said Beast) starring alongside Emma Watson and also the lead from FX’s X-Men oriented show Legion that has garnered tons of acclaim. He appears to be breaking out from a European star and indie darling (Go friggin’ watch The Guest already) to maybe something more. Stevens did this little drama back in 2016. You can grab it when it comes to Blu-ray on June 6th.
Film 
After James, a blind man, inexplicably regains his vision, he becomes possessed by a drive to make a better life for himself. However, his new improvements—a nicer home, a higher paying job, tailored suits, luxury car—leave little room for the people who were part of his old, simpler life: his plain wife and close friend Bob. As his relationships buckle under the strain of his snowballing ambition, it becomes uncertain if James can ever return from darkness. Director Ido Fluk paints a visual world that reflects the mesmerizing effect that newfound sight has on James; the vibrant backgrounds and the sun-drenched rooms are captivating in their beauty. His dreamy and subjective style combines with an astute sense of character to craft a tale of desire, perception, and what it really means to be blind.
Ido Fluk’s film feels both safe and bold in the same stroke. His direction and storytelling of this blind man who suddenly regains the ability to see goes both how you’d expect and plays against expectation. However, when this movie makes its sort of unexpected turn from something you were prediction, it just sort of follows another path to predict accurately. However, while there is that factor, you do help feel for some of the things going on and can’t believe what a shit this guy turns out to be.
Said shit is done quite well in another great performance by Dan Stevens. He handles this with his normal gusto as his “Danny Stevens” self (That’s what you call him with the American accent). However, he isn’t the film’s MVP. That would be Malin Akerman. It is funny how they try to haggard up the incredibly beautiful actor (Not possible), but her performance sells it all. This is one of her career best and makes the movie by you wanting her presence and feeling for her in scenes she doesn’t appear. Another strong role and performances in the film comes from veteran Oliver Platt.
The Ticket has an interesting concept and turn of events, but winds up being ho-hum and falling away from engagement as its runtime continues. Its a well acted and shot with a little bit of personality and character, but it feels long even for a short film. Its pretty dour, but is effective in its important moments, the film just slugs around between them. This Stevens-led drama may be one better served previewing when it comes to a streaming service you subscribe to rather than buying it outright.
Video
Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Layers: BD-25
Clarity/Detail: The Ticket finds itself a very good and solid transfer in its Blu-ray debut. Its image features some really good attention to detail and for the most part, a pretty clear and sharp picture to go on. There are some scenes with a little murkiness, but they are of few. Overall, this just looks like your typical modern indie, shot digitally, coming to Blu-ray with ease.
Depth: The film features and decent distancing between character/object and background. Characters move naturally with minimal to no blur/jitter.
Black Levels: Blacks are deep with a little bit of a gray tinge to them. Shading doesn’t really hide any information that wouldn’t otherwise be missing. No crushing witnessed during this viewing.
Color Reproduction: Colors hold a bold look with strong natural colors that have some moments with pop here and there. Blue eyes, reds and yellows really come through quite nicely.
Flesh Tones: Despite having a golden filter or other color, skin tones are natural and maintain a consistent appearance start to finish. Facial details like stubble, wrinkles, lip texture, make-up and freckles all come through very good in close ups and solid in medium shots.
Noise/Artifacts: Clean
Audio
Audio Format(s): English 5.1 DTS-HD MA, English 2.0 DTS-HD MA
Subtitles: English
Dynamics: If you see The Ticket, you’ll know its not a movie that demands much at all from its audio. Its a really dialogue heavy, natural emanated film that is light on any real deep action. Anyway, its still got a good balance in its vocals, music and effects. The only real ding is that you gotta turn the movie up just a hair as said mix is a little bit low in your normal settings.
Height: N/A
Low Frequency Extension: Some natural sounds like doors closing and music are the subwoofer’s source of bump.
Surround Sound Presentation: There are some moments, mainly blind perspective, where this has some fun, but its front heavy with some good ambiance from the rear and the like.
Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are crisp
Extras
Audio Commentary
- By Writer/Director Ido Fluk And Writer Sharon Mashihi
Theatrical Trailer (HD, 1:52)
Summary
The Ticket could have been a bit more, but its disappointing average with a few strong spots. This Blu-ray has a pretty strong overall presentation with both good video and audio. While there aren’t any featurettes, you do get to be treated to a commentary which gives good opinion and feel for the film. Not sure this is one to own, but its urged that you rent or find it on a streaming service first.
