The Brass Teapot Blu-ray review

Format: AC-3, Blu-ray, Closed-captioned, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen

Language: English

Subtitles: Spanish

Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: R (Restricted)

Studio: Magnolia

DVD Release Date: June 18, 2013

Run Time: 101 minutes

 

 

The Brass Teapot plays like an episode from any number of the more lighthearted genre anthology television shows such as “The Twilight Zone.” The format of anthologies in television often restrict the time to the point of permitting a single idea or concept. The Brass Teapot feels as though it is abiding to these restrictions despite having a feature length running time.

 

         John and Alice (Michael Angarano and Juno Temple) are high school sweethearts trying to make a life for themselves despite their depleting income. John works as a failing telemarketing insurance salesman, while Alice relies on him financially as she works on a useless Masters degree in Art History. Alice appears to be Eve in this transparent fable about the loss of innocence paired with greed and money, as the one who steals the magical teapot and easily transforms into a bully who abuses and picks on her nerdy husband whenever he doesn’t do as she pleases. Alice is more attractive than john, so we allow her to be the more unsavory of the two, though by the end I found myself only wishing for a happy ending for one of them.

 

        The teapot in question is discovered in a small shop, and soon after she steals it from a little old lady, Alice finds that it has special powers. The mystical teapot reacts to pain with a reward, spitting out money for every act of abuse occurring near it. First Alice hurts herself in order to get money, but as soon as her husband arrives home from real work, she begins abusing him instead. By beating her husband, Alice becomes the breadwinner in the family. Next comes the emotional abuse, and instigated by Alice, the couple sit at a table and say mean things to each other. We discover Alice’s disloyalty, and yet we are still supposed to care about this deranged couple.

 

        The film progresses naturally from there, until finally resolving a manner which was too neat for me too appreciate. Somehow it feels as though no lesson was learned if the offenders end up rewarded. The Blu-ray includes a number of special features, from promotional featurettes to additional material. There is even a commentary track with director Ramaa Mosley and executive producer P. Jennifer Dana.

 

       

       

Entertainment Value: 7/10

Quality of Filmmaking: 5/10

Historical Significance: 4/10

Disc Features: 7/10