Plush - DVD

Content: Hayley (Emily Browning) and her brother were an unbeatable team. Closely bonded by their love of music, they created songs together that made their band Plush a real staple. The second album of the band now seems to be the big hit. But Hayley can't be happy about this success. Because her brother has just died of an overdose. Hayley blames herself for this, believing that she destroyed their very special bond by her very early marriage to journalist Carter (Cam Gigandet) and the birth of their child together, thus driving her brother to drugs. New guitarist Enzo (Xavier Samuel) is expected to fill the void left by Hayley's brother, at least musically. While the singer is initially skeptical of the replacement, she soon finds an unexpected friend in Enzo, who gives her support and new creativity during this difficult time. The young mother embarks on a dangerous affair, unaware that she is putting far more at risk than just her marriage...

After directing two rather soft-spoken teen fantasy films with high mass appeal in the first Twilight film and the Red Riding Hood variant Red Riding Hood - Under the Wolf Moon, Catherine Hardwicke returns to her roots, at least stylistically, with Plush. Seasoned with a bit of eroticism, the thriller-drama is much more visually reminiscent of Thirteen or Dogtown Boys than it is of the sparkling vampire world of Twilight. However, this departure from the glossy look of her last two films here feels nowhere near as authentic as it did when she first began her directing career. Rather, Plush makes such an effort to be maladjusted, especially at the beginning, that this doesn't seem interesting or engaging, just unwieldy and exhausting.

The story itself has potential. Emily Browning does a very good job of giving the tortured artist soul who seems to have found a soulmate in Enzo who could heal her deep wounds with his very special way, but also with his body. How she loses more and more control over her life through this friendship, which degenerates into a passionate affair, could have been really rousing and exciting with a slightly better script. Unfortunately, Hardwicke squandered that opportunity for much of her film. This would be less bad if Plush was thoroughly bad. But the film just isn't. It has some really strong moments and reveals good potential again and again.

If Hardwicke had used this more intensively instead of concentrating too cramped on the stylistic departure from blockbuster cinema, she could have succeeded in making an extremely watchable trip into the self-destructive world of Sex, Drugs & Rock`n`Roll. But so Plush has become only a somewhat strained and exhausting love triangle with light thriller elements, in which only the actors, the soundtrack by Nick Launay of Arcade Fire and a handful of successful moments of suspense give the film just a worth seeing.

Picture + Sound: The image quality of the DVD underlines the very special visual style of the film. Black levels and contrasts are neatly matched, the colour mixing is extremely coherent and the overall sharpness also leaves a positive overall impression - even if there are minor weaknesses to be discovered here and there in the many darker scenes, such as minimal picture noise and minor blurring. The dialogue and music from Plush set the tone for the sound. While the voices are mixed rather frontal, but also the surround channels are used again and again, resulting in a fairly dynamic sound image. Good!

Extras: As a bonus, there are only music videos of the fictional band Plush, some short outtakes (about 2 min.), as well as the trailer for the film. Background information on the filming is unfortunately not offered here.

Conclusion:With Plush, Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke turns away from glossy mainstream cinema and tries to return to her roots. But this thriller can't quite compete with the acclaimed teen drama Thirteen, despite some good moments. Because even though the visuals are more in line with independent cinema, dramaturgically those weaknesses that already afflicted Twilight and Red Riding Hood keep creeping in. Nevertheless, the film has decent actors and a few successful moments of suspense to offer, which in the end just enough for a recommendable

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp