Starring:	Monica Potter	88min
	Joseph Fiennes
	Rufus Sewell	1998
	Tom Hollander
	Ray Winstone
		Romantic
Screenplay:	Peter Morgan	Comedy
Director:	Nick Hamm	Colour

Region	2 (Rental Only)	Studio:	VCI
Format	Single Sided, Single Layer	Subtitles	None
Aspect ratio	16:9
Anamorphic	Yes
Soundtracks	Dolby Digital 2.0	Extra Features	Promotional Featurette
			Sub plots
Case type	Amaray		Feature Clips
			Theatrical Trailer
			Full motion menu with music
			Biographies

The DVD * * * *		The Movie * * * *
Martha, Meet Daniel, Frank & Laurence earns itself a tiny slice of UK video history as being the first ever film to be released to DVD rental ONLY, simultaneous with VHS. Granted it's hardly going to rewrite the major reference works of our time, but it'll be interesting to see if rental-only DVD ever really catches on, with only VCI supporting it at time of writing. In the mean time, this is a happy little number well worth three quid of any DVD owner's money. This is a good, highly colourful transfer, which belies the film's low budget origins. After a typical few early visual blemishes on the source print, things settle down to a good anamorphic 16:9 (not anamorphic-less 1.85:1 as suggested on the cover) virtual artifact-free image. The sound, meanwhile isn't quite up to scratch, suffering from a very televisual dub - not much in the way of atmospheres, some replaced dialogue that doesn't match and a non-existent dynamic range make for a grim parochial experience. Oh, and since the 2-channel surround speakers have so little to do, I wouldn't lose sleep over not having the full 5.1 monty on this disc. The extras are welcome, if unexciting. The featurette is a six minute standard issue stars-describe-the-plot jobby, and the Feature Clips (not anamorphic for what it's worth) are just a but-joining together of a few favourite scenes. Presumably this was a reel sent out to TV companies for use on film programmes - there really isn't much point in having them here when you've got the whole thing already... VCI miss a trick with their sub-plots here. The idea is to follow one single story thread through, and a prime candidate here would have been the scenes which are later repeated, but through the eyes of a different character. Instead, we just get options to see Martha meeting the three blokes, the psychiatrist scenes, Martha and Laurence and the two bickering friends. Shame. The menu is really nice though, featuring part of the excellent score by Ed Shearmur and full motion video windows for the scene selection options. There is a bug here though (at least on a Panasonic A100) - if you switch the player off and restart, the menu doesn't work anymore, with every attempted selection restarting the film. Worse, the only way to re-enable the selections properly it is to eject and start again - wading though nearly a minute and a half of copyright notices and logos that you are barred from even stopping! Come on, VCI - this is just silly. We're all grown ups here... But while there are legitimate gripes here, this is fundamentally a really enjoyable disc. And the design helps make it far more fun than renting out a dull old VHS.		Finally it's happening. From a time when any half decent commercial UK film was grabbed by the movie-going public with both hands, the country and his wife are now releasing punter-friendly fare by the popcorn-bucket load. And this, featuring a cast of not-far-off unknowns - is better example than most, even if it is far from flawless. The three males of the title are lifelong friends, explains Laurence to his neighbour psychiatrist (Ray Winstone - excellent). Within 3 days, their friendship has been blown apart as each has (swallow your incredulity) accidentally bumped into Martha, a gorgeous lost soul on her way out of Minneapolis to the first place with a $99 plane ticket. She captivates the spoiled Daniel, a record executive, on her plane flight, and in London drunkenly enraptures self-pitying out-of-work actor Frank. So where does Laurence fit into all of this? That's the magic of Peter Morgan's screenplay, as the twisty-turny story unfolds from the different friends' perspectives. The film's biggest problem however, is getting to that point - after 30 minutes it is clear that both Frank and Daniel are so obnoxious, it's horrendous to think of having to spend another hour in the company of them. Fortunately as Laurence takes centre stage, things improve, although even here his character is not exactly magnetic. The film relies heavily on Marcia Potter to weave her not inconsiderable charm on the audience. Occasionally the direction is a bit distractingly tricksy, but this is a minor point. By the end, the film works, and the end result pretty similar to Sliding Doors in the degree of success it attains. Not many actual belly laughs, but happily engaging enough.