Why So Blu?

Welcome To Me (Blu-ray Review)

 

Film 

Welcome To Me stars Kristen Wiig playing the role of Alice Klieg – a person with Border Personality Disorder. She wakes up daily at about noon, and from what I can tell, has no job or any other prospects. She has a very large collection of VHS cassettes and uses those cassettes to videotape Oprah Winfrey’s television show. She spends her time re-watching Oprah episodes while reciting inspirational lines from the tapings. She also plays the Mega Millions lottery whenever there’s a drawing. She also keeps the non-winning tickets, as well.

During one uneventful day Alice watches one of the drawings and wins the big one. The sum is like 86 million dollars. Flush with cash Alice seeks a deeper meaning to her complicated life. She stops taking her meds, checks into a casino hotel near Palm Springs/Indio and decides that she wants to be the next Oprah. She ventures out to the local station that broadcasts one of the shows she watches on a regular basis. The host to one of the shows that she watches is Gabe Ruskin (Wes Bentley) – an awkward individual indeed, but with a kind heart. He hosts a vitamin supplemental infomercial and his brother and the “brains” behind the operation is Rich Ruskin (James Marsden). Alice insists on meeting with the Ruskin brothers and their producer Dawn Hurley (Joan Cusack).

Alice pontificates as the major players that run the very small studio warn her about the pitfalls and expense that goes into creating a show form scratch. Alice is unfazed and whips out a check for 15 million dollars on the spot. Rich just sees dollars signs and takes her up on her offer. The next scenes of awkwardness involve Alice getting in the way of people doing their jobs onset while not really preparing for her new show. As the title of the film implies – it’s definitely a one-woman show. ME. Since the show is unscripted Alice just does what she wants as the cameras tool. She bakes a meatloaf cake and eats it as cameras roll but soon becomes a tad bit depressed and wants the production values to go up. Yes, she pays millions more on the spot and Rich takes her money. There’s a total rinse and repeat pattern to what Alice does in the film.

As you can see where this is going Welcome To Me is a very frustrating film to get through, because Alice is obviously a very unstable woman, who is extremely selfish, etc. I hear that being selfish in that manner as to where you alienate your loved ones is major component of BPD. I think that’s also why I didn’t really like the film. Alice is not a likable person. Another awkward part of the film is the running gag of her always starting a discussion or presentation reading from a “prepared statement.” She literally has a prepared statement that she reads from but is always cut off due to the salaciousness and crassness of the prepared statement. I think those scenes are funny enough but they don’t necessarily save the film as a whole.

Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, and Kristen Wig produced Welcome To Me, and it’s obvious that they believed in the material, I just wished that the storyline were better. There really isn’t anyone to like in the film, with the exception of Gina (Linda Cardinelli), who is Alice’s best friend and often the one that gets trashed by Alice. gave is also another likable character who means well but ultimately is given a raw deal by Rich and by Alice. The movie also clocks in at 87-minutes with credits, so maybe a few more minutes of extra story or exposition could have made a difference. I say that due to Alice not really having a detailed backstory considering she is our main character. In any event – tread lightly with Welcome To Me, because the film is actually quite dark. Don’t let the colorful look of the film fool you. Some scenes are very difficult to watch.

 

Video 

Encoding: AVC/MPEG-4

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Clarity/Detail: At first glance the visual look of the film reminds me of a Wes Anderson film. That’s where all of the comparisons end, because it’s not a Wes Anderson film, though the transfer is very good looking. Contrast, sharpness levels do not seemed to have been tweaked, and there’s a nice layer of grain throughout.

Depth: Welcome To Me looks like a pastel painting most of the time. That’s a good thing.

Black Levels: Black levels are string and natural – crush is absent.

Color Reproduction: As I mentioned before the color palette looks like a cupcake sometimes. This probably has to do with the production and costume design. If you’re screen is properly calibrated then you will notice at how colorful the film is. It’s a nice touch.

Flesh Tones: Everyone looks healthy enough.

Noise/Artifacts: I did not notice any anomalies, dirt, noise, or scratches.

 

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English Dolby TrueHD 5.1

Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

Dynamics: No, this is not an action packed extravaganza of a movie, but that does not mean that the Blu-ray doesn’t sound spectacular for what it is.

Low Frequency Extension: Low-end bass cues are few but can be felt during certain scenes throughout the film.

Surround Sound Presentation: The rear channels handle ambience, studio audience reactions, and unique music cues with problems. They are nicely integrated with what’s going on in the front and they never collide into each other.

Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue levels are nice and natural. You will hear every cringe inducing moment with shocking clarity.

 

Extras 

We get one extra special feature and that is a self-congratulatory making-of featurette that runs for about seven minutes.

• Special Featurette: Making Of

 

Summary 

I think it took a wee bit of guts to bring Welcome To Me to fruition due to the boldness of the material but it’s a very dark and somewhat bleak telling. I don’t think the film knew what it wanted to be due to the shifts in tone. I’m not at all surprised as to why this film didn’t get a wide release – it’s not really marketable no mater who’s in it. The video and specifications are above average but the lack of any worthy special features drag the score back down. If you’re at all curious then a rental suffice but you could also go the rest of your life without seeing the film and you’d be just as well off.

 

 

 

Welcome To Me is released on Blu-ray & DVD June 16!

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