Laurel Canyon [DVD] [2003] | ![Laurel Canyon [DVD] [2003]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DNW445QYL._SL160_.jpg) | Director: Lisa Cholodenko
Actors: Frances McDormand, Alessandro Nivola, Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, Natascha McElhone
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: £19.99
Buy New: £1.99
as of 23/11/2009 14:21 GMT details
You Save: £18.00 (90%)
New (15) Used (12) Collectible (1) from £1.09
Seller: great_entertainment
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 17599
Format: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL
Languages: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired), Arabic (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Hindi (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region: 2
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 99 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5035822402638
ASIN: B0001FYREE
Release Date: April 26, 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
 Taboos and Adult Committment March 14, 2004
prisrob (New EnglandUSA)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
Laurel Canyon is a street that runs through the Hollywood Hills. It has always been known as a place for the hippies, the Boogie Night scene, the off kilter, slightly left of left neighborhoods.brInto this community come Chrisitan Bale and Kate Beckinsale, newly marired and graduates of Harvard Medical School. Conserative by nature, uptight and serious. They are moving into Alex's (Christin Bale) mom's home while she is away. But, then Jane (Frances McDermond) isn't away. She is a veteran record producer and is in the midst of producing a hit single for a British group. The lead singer, Ian (Alessandro Nivola) and lover of Jane is just taking too long to get these tunes right.brThe music he wields is on the edge and the beat grabs you.pInto this mix of honest exploration of relationships and a divergence of world views comes the revolution. Jane is into physical relationships, man and woman and variations of them all. Alex, the son, wants nothing to do with his mom's behavior. He wants the exact opposite. How will this resolve? What happens when two conservative Harvard grads break free of their boundaries? Can mom and her lover keep their fantasies to themselves? What is it about Laurel Canyon- what draws these people into a search for themeselves? I liked this movie- reminds me of the heydays of the 70's and 80's- prisrob
Such a good film.. November 7, 2009
D. Taylor (UK)
...and I found it by accident. I was looking for Alessandro Nivola, who is achingly gorgeous (see him in Mansfield Park) and this came up, and seeing it had some pretty big names, all of whom I admire, on an impulse I bought it! I don't think Frances McDormand has ever made a dud film and I've seen most of them, she's just utterly brilliant. In fact the whole cast was excellent. The story centres around Bale, Mr Uptight, and his straight laced academic girlfriend, Beckinsale. They need a place to stay LA while Bale takes up a medical post. They're offered McDormand's (Bale's Mother, who it seems he's disapproved of since he left her womb) house in 'Laurel Canyon'. It's supposed to be empty but McDormand (this fast living, hippy chick, record producer) is there with a band, who's lead singer (Nivola) is also her current squeeze and they're against the clock trying to cut a record (that's old fashioned speak, I don't think they're called records anymore?). I won't try to tell the story as it's better watched but the shift in the dynamics between this mix of peole is very well done. It covers the full spectrum of emtions, it's very honest and heart warming and a bit sad, but it's also sexy. Though best of all it's bloody funny, not laugh out loud funny, it's not a comedy, but you'll smile a lot. I loved it, I've watched it twice, the second time with my son and he loved it too!
 Laurel Canyon echoes with emotion! December 23, 2003
gary (Vancouver, Canada)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Laurel Canyon is an unusual film for Hollywood. It is not your typical story line and that makes it interesting. It is about a young med student coming home with his (also med student) girlfriend to stay at his mother's place expecting she will not be home. Instead she is, and rather than this young couple being the free spirits, it turns out that Mom is a hippy holdover; albeit a fairly successful one who works in the recording industry. Frances McDormand plays Mom, and she is really what makes the movie worth watching. The British rock stars are also kind of cool!pThe film says a lot about the relationship between mother son. Some bits about the mother-girlfriend-rock star relationship are a little harder to imagine. Still, the film is worth watching, certainly for the acting, but also perhaps just to see the lifestyles of the rich and perverted!
The siren song of the Low Road January 7, 2006
Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
LAUREL CANYON, a drama, is more than just a little reminiscent of 1994's SIRENS, a comedy. In the latter, Hugh Grant plays a newly-minted Anglican cleric of the Victorain era posted to Australia, where his bishop assigns him the task of prevailing upon a celebrated local artist (Sam Neill) to elevate his canvasses out of the gutter by leaving out the bare-naked ladies. Arriving at the artist's tropical residence, the minister finds the sultry lushness of the surroundings exceeded only by that of several nude models, one of whom is Elle Macpherson. While the cleric valiantly keeps a stiff upper lip in the face of so much nubile flesh, his sexually repressed wife (Tara Fitzgerald) is soon seduced by the sensual atmosphere that pervades the place and is presided over by the Neill character, a sort of benignly detached Hugh Hefner type.pIn this film, Dr. Sam, M.D. (Christian Bale) and his fiancee, Dr. Alex, M.D. (Kate Beckinsale), both graduates of Harvard Med, travel to Los Angeles to temporarily take up abode in the vacant residence of the former's mother, Jane (Frances McDormand), while Alex does a First Year Resident gig in the psychiatric unit of a local hospital and Alex finishes up her Ph.D. dissertation on the genomics of fruit flies. However, upon arriving at the home in LAUREL CANYON, the two find the place still occupied. Jane, a record producer and aging Flower Child, is using the location to put together a new disc with a British rock band. Uptight Sam, who describes his Mom as dysfunctional, is not overly surprised to find her presiding over an environment of marijuana, casual sex, and rock 'n' roll - the traditional California dangers (according to traditional mothers everywhere) to virtue and clean living. But there's nothing Sam can do on a daily basis but go off to do his shrink stuff, during which he becomes attracted to Second Year Resident Dr. Sara (Natascha McElhone), while leaving Alex at home to cope with the corrosive hedonism of surroundings so unlike those of her hoity-toity Eastern upbringing.pFor me, the only reason to see LAUREL CANYON is the talented Frances McDormand, who proves that she, as an older actress, can be awfully sexy. Of the female roles in the film, world weary and wise Jane is the only one who promises a Good Time not subject to guilty post-coital introspection. Since none of the other characters captured my interest or sympathy, the quality of the acting involved in their portrayal is irrelevant. Ian (Alessandro Nivola), the leader of the rock group, is just obnoxious as Jane's 20-year-younger, Bad Boy lover. Sara is vapid as the seductress of the one she should be professionally mentoring, and who should know better. The admittedly lovely Alex is like a deer caught in the headlights of temptation, and Sam is too neurotic to be an appealing persona. And the very last scene of the film left my wife and I saying Huh?. pIf you have a choice between LAUREL CANYON and SIRENS, choose the latter. As an adult fairy tale and/or morality play, it's much more fun and entertaining.
Not was i've thought... July 15, 2007
Kira Lund (Denmark)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I think this movies directer try to say so much about this movie, but I think the result only turns out to be long, boring and a very, very cliche lovestory. The only reason why this film gets 3 stars instead of 2, is that Christian Bales performens again is so brilliant in this movie.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
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