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Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael
On the DVD: This is a bare-bones package with a simple two-channel stereo and 16:9 anamorphic ratio transfer. That said, it looks and sounds just fine. There's only one trailer, but someone's tried with the diner-style menu at least. --Paul Tonks
RRP: £10.61
Our Price: £18.99 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
In 1990, Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael showed Winona Ryder as cinema's top teenage role model. Her edge was a delinquency-equals-sympathy angle that held true throughout Beetlejuice, Mermaids, Heathers and Edward Scissorhands. Here as Dinky Bossetti she's chasing the ghosts of a past no one can explain. She's adopted; her town of Clyde, Ohio is mysteriously stuck in the 1950s; but weirder still is everyone's fixation with the imminent return of once-famous homecoming girl Roxy Carmichael. Dinky's school peers conform to the John Hughes 80s look and mindset, but it's the retro adult population that really winds her up. Jeff Daniels ought to be a perfectly conditioned suburbanite, but can't get over having once been married to Roxy. Imparting the secret that they'd had a child and given it away, Dinky's own confusions and obsessions suddenly make sense. The tangle of B-plots are given purpose at the same time she is. Her silent admirer (Thomas Wilson Brown) is able to approach her at last, and her school guidance counsellor becomes the friend she's never had. Ultimately the story's about the notion that no teenager ever feels like they fit in. Of course the real problem facing Ryder, Dinky and any viewer is that all teens grow up. What then?
Great film, bad package
Review date: 2006-06-12 Rating: 8 out of 10
Whatever happened to Winona Ryder? When you look at a film like this, her talent is so extremely obvious that you wonder how Hollywood could have let her fall through the cracks. This is a very simple film, but that's its appeal: it doesn't try to be clever. It takes its story of a teenager who's not just an outcast in her school but in her entire town and runs with it.
Although the film's title is "Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael", it's really about Dinky Bossetti, the aforementioned outcast. And it's not difficult to sympathise with Dinky: her adoptive mother wants a "perfect little girl", her classmates think she's a waste of space and the adults around her are petty and narrow-minded. But although Dinky is understandably guarded and averse to making an effort, Winona doesn't allow her character to be a typical bitter, jaded teen. "We just don't fit," she says of her adoptive mother. "It happens." The whole film revolves around Winona's performance, although Jeff Daniels makes a nice appearance as the confused suburban builder who may or may not be Dinky's biological father.
Once you've seen the film, you'll know all the answers, but you keep coming back because of the truth in Winona's performance and how, in its surreal way, this film really nails the small-town mentality.
I'm giving it four out of five because the rest of the package is so poor. A trailer and that's it.
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Reviews
Dinky Bossetti- a true original !
Review date: 2003-08-04 Rating: 8 out of 10
I always thought that this film was one of Winona Ryder's best films from her teenage years.In my opinion it still is. She is superb as Dinky Bosetti the adopted smalltown teengae outcast whose eccentric ways make her the object of ridicule for the popular crowd at school. Along with this enter Roxy Carmichael the small-town hero and now famous singer who is due to visit Dinky's hometown and for whom Dinky believes is her long lost mother. Through Roxy's imminent visit Dinky sees a way in which to break free from the shackels of her narrow-minded, unimaginative hometown.This is a great film and a must see one at that for anyone who wishes to see one of Winona Ryder's great performances. She captures the angst of the the teenage misfit so well, you are pleasantly amused by her eccentricites, her obsession with black, her little Noah's ark of pet farmyard animals. Dinky is a true original.
Dinky Bossetti is cool!
Review date: 2003-06-18 Rating: 8 out of 10
Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael is a great film. But with the release of Mermaids and Edward Scissorhands at around the same time in the cinema I've often felt that this film of Winona Ryder's has always been overlooked.This film is one of Winona Ryder's best teenage films. She gives a good performance as the adopted, intelligent small town teenage girl despised and alienated by her peers who feel threatened by her striking uniqueness and individuality which they perceive as'odd.'
Her character Dinky Bossetti empathises with Roxy Carmichael a former local girl turned famous singer who was despised by her peers in Clyde for exactly the same reasons as Roxy. Dinky looks for a way out of Clyde especially as she believes that Roxy is her real mother who will come back to Clyde to claim her and take her away from this hell. I liked this film as I feel that the trials and tribulations that Dinky goes through are all about 'being yourself,' at the end of the day . She comes to terms with herself as a person and she learns to embrace herself and her adoptive parents throughout the course of the film.
There are competent performances from the supporting cast particularly Jeff Daniels as Roxy's former first love. The real revelation is Winona Ryder who just engages you with her performance of Dinky Bossetti and her all her quirky ways. This is a wonderful film that shows all the angsts of teenagehood, growing up and most importantly being true to yourself at the end of the day.
An overall package thumbs up
Review date: 2002-01-07 Rating: 8 out of 10
Winona Ryder shines in this with her usual style of capturing the mood for the situation. The film unfolds gracefully rather than powerfully but the characters and emotions are superb. It is certainly one of those films which has to be judged as an overall mood rather than a dissection.
If you own most of Ryder's work then this should be included in the collection.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Jeff Daniels
Winona Ryder
Thomas Wilson Brown
Laila Robins
Joan McMurtrey
Creators:
Winona Ryder (Primary Contributor)
Jeff Daniels (Primary Contributor)
Paul Elliott (Cinematographer)
Bruce Green (Editor)
Karen Leigh Hopkins (Producer)
Karen Leigh Hopkins (Writer)
Penney Finkelman Cox (Producer)
Director(s):
Recording label: Filmax
Manufacturer: Filmax
EAN: 8420018707302
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2005-04-26
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Region code: 2
Running time: 92 minutes
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: Spanish (Original Language)