Only You

Shooting to fame after winning an oscar for best supporting actress in My Cousin Vinny, Marisa Tomei seemed to have all the qualities necessary for becoming successful, looks and talent. Sadly, it hasn't yet gone according to plan with Only You being the more noted performance since her award. Robert Downey, Jr. has had an even more unfortunate turn of affairs given that he can't seem to stay out of court these days. His talent could have taken him alot further even though he has been in some 40+ movies spanning 3 decades.

Only You is a story about fate and destiny. When Faith Corvatch (Marisa) was young she experimented with a Ouija board to find her soul mate who is revealed to her as DAMON BRADLEY. Believing in destiny, she goes to see a fortune teller who sees a name appear to her in the crystal ball, DAMON BRADLEY. This can't be a coincidence and she truly believes this is the man she is to spend her life with.

14 years later, Faith is to be married to a boring Podiatrist. Whilst at home she receives a phone call from her fiances school friend who is on his way to Italy - his name? Damon Bradley. Not wanting to let her destiny slip away from her, she drags her sister-in-law off to Europe with her in search of Damon.

When luck doesn't seem to be going right in their search and all hope is lost, a man (Robert Downey Jr) comes running after them to return a lost shoe (a Cinderella story? not quite), this man claims to be Damon Bradley. Thinking she has come full circle in her search, Faith jumps into the arms of this man only to realise that he said he was Damon to get her back to his hotel room. As expected, Faith is furious but Peter Wright (Robert Downey Jr) vows to help her find the real Damon (Billy Zane).

But is he the real Damon? He is not the man she expected in her dreams so is he really Damon? Is this just another ploy on Peters behalf? Does she find the real Damon? Does she like the real Damon? Does she realise the Mr Wright is mr right after all? Have I just exposed the ending? All is revealed in this once in a lifetime love story that is, put simply, nice.

Another good transfer from the boys at SPDC. There's not really much you can say about these transfers that hasn't already been said. Nothing really stands out to comment on so it's just the film stock that has any bearing in the quality.

There is little film noise within the picture and the picture does look a little grainy at times. Night scenes come up well with good black level and shadow detail. Sharpness is pretty good and overall picture detail is good. There was very, very slight aliasing in some scenes but not really discernable until you forcefully look for it.

Not an impressive soundtrack but it does the film justice. The english soundtrack is encoded as DD 5.0 so you can turn your subwoofer off if it doesn't auto-sleep (Greg).

Dialogue is always clear and intelligible. The musical score is present across the front sound stage which opens up the sometimes mono sounding soundtrack. Surrounds do come into effect throughout the movie but it's not going to turn any heads.

A theatrical trailer and a behind the scenes feature accompany the disc. The featurette is pretty short and simply a promo for the movie with short interviews and clips.

It's a beautiful love story, first recommended to me by my sisters as their favorite of all love stories. It just goes to show that what you believe is your destiny doesn't necessarily have to be the be all and end all of journeys. Things can change, most of the time for the better. Enough preaching, good movie for both owning and renting.