Search - The Hotel New Hampshire on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Violence, Adult Situations, Rape & Sexual Abuse, Not For Children, Adult Language, Adult Humor, Profanity Movie Release: 1984 DVD Release: 07/10/2001 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Edition: Special Collection Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 49 mins Studio: MGM Total Copies: 8 Genres: Comedy Drama, Black Comedy, Family Drama, Coming-of-Age

This macabre, whimsical, erotic, dark, seriocomic film is a complex tale about an eccentric family and the psychological and emotional maelstroms that follow them around from New England to New York to Vienna, where the Hotel New Hampshire is located. Writer-director Tony Richardson worked from the convoluted novel by John Irving that covers most universally saleable topics -- homosexuality, death, incest, abandonment, Nazis, masochism, terrorists, rape, mental instability, and anarchists. The children in the family are the main focus: John (Rob Lowe) is a womanizing high-school student with a deep-rooted desire for his own sister; Franny (Jodie Foster) is the eldest daughter, a victim of a gang rape, now morbidly fascinated by one of the rapists, and equally attracted to her brother with incestuous desire; Frank (Paul McCrane) is the younger gay brother; and Lilly (Jennifer Dundas) is the little sister who blossoms into a famous author. Associated with the family is Suzie the Bear (Nastassja Kinski) who is not secure enough to come out of her bear suit. One friend of the family, Freud (Wallace Shawn), has been blinded by the Nazis and is running the Hotel New Hampshire in Vienna when he asks everyone to come and help him out. By this time, the plot has run out of room, and the climactic endings to several unresolved relationships happen in quick succession. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Jodie Foster - Franny
Beau Bridges - Father/Win Berry
Rob Lowe - John
Nastassja Kinski - Susie the bear
Wilford Brimley - Iowa Bob

A real oddball of a movie adapted from a good book, Hotel New Hampshire has attracted a small, if devoted cult audience over the years. This MGM/UA DVD release shouldn't win the film any new converts, but fans will prefer it to the old video version. The widescreen transfer wasn't done in the preferable anamorphic process, but the source print is clean and most of the movie looks fine. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like much personal attention was given to the transfer itself as the timing seems to be off on a couple of scenes involving intense natural sunlight (light bleeds through the rest of the picture) and subdued indoor lighting (the picture suddenly becomes way too dark). Thankfully, this doesn't happen too often, and the Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono audio track is well-balanced if otherwise unexceptional. There aren't any real DVD extras here, except for the original theatrical trailer. ~ Nick Dedina, All Movie Guide