Product Details

• Actors: Mina Badie, Stan Berger, Pamela Dunlap, Michael Gatson, John Heard
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Showtime Ent.
• DVD Release Date: July 12, 2005
• Run Time: 134 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0009ETCR4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,363 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Mind the Gap" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

MIND THE GAP - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To Life!, August 25, 2005

By 

Alejandra Vernon "artist & illustrator" (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Mind the Gap (DVD)

Filmed on a stringent budget and time schedule, "Mind the Gap" is a brilliant ensemble piece that follows 5 life stories in a heart-warming, life-affirming web of coincidence. Director Eric Shaeffer, who also plays the part of Sam, has woven this magical tale into a film I will never forget. It is a love song to life, and it is also about courage. The courage to do the things that result in a life lived without regrets.

The cast is superb. Alan King plays a cantankerous old man on a mission, and this was sadly to be his last film. Elizabeth Reaser plays Melissa, a young woman born of a rape, who has a heart full of strength and love. Reaser is luminous, a beauty that will no doubt be a superstar in the near future. Christopher Kovaleski is Rocky, Sam's gangling, bright and shining son, who is a delight to watch. Singer Jill Sobule is Jody, a petite dynamo with an extraordinary talent as a songwriter and as an actress, and the film features many of her songs. Charles Parnell is incredibly moving as John, a man despondent over his divorce. There are many other great performances too numerous to name individually, all of them memorable characters, played to perfection, and the thread around them is Julio Diaz, the Times Square salsa dancing man.

Watch this film several times, and you will see its many layered quality, revealing more with each viewing. It is a quirky, beautiful, warm, and lovable film, and deserves one's time and attention. Filmed on location in New York City and Vermont by Marc Blandori, the music is by Veigar Margeisson, with some mystical, lovely selections by Krishna Das. The DVD extra is the commentary for the film, which is chatty and informative, and total running time is 130 minutes.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Why isn't this film more well known?, July 19, 2005

By 

S. C Sochet "samerator" (syosset, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mind the Gap (DVD)

This is a terrific film by Eric Schaeffer, who also stars in this ensemble piece in the tradition/spirit of the better Robert Altman films. Every scene makes sense. The performances are all excellent, including a wonderful job by the late great Alan King, one of the best American talents of the past half century. This is a movie well worth seeing. See it yourself and be surprised as I was.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Real Characters And Situations Need Not Apply--Another Film With An Annoying Compendium Of Character "Types", November 12, 2006

By 

K. Harris "Film aficionado" (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mind the Gap (DVD)

Here we go again (send me your hate mail). "Mind The Gap" is another (of many) films that people discover and love. With a large colorful cast, many life lessons to be learned, and a rollicking feel good ending--oh, this must be a crowd pleaser! People will embrace this film, it'll make them feel good--but rarely have I witnessed a movie so false and so manipulative at every turn. I recently said in another review that "quirky" is the new curse of the indie film scene. There are nice quirky pictures--but most films of this genre tend to give you character types instead of real people. We're supposed to find oddball mannerisms irresistible and relatable. Now a straight comedy can sometimes pull this off, but it is far more difficult for a film trying to have a serious side. It's a house of cards--because you have "types" and not "people," real emotional payoff is hard to come by. In "Mind the Gap," this house is also built on overstylized and unbelievable dialogue.

The impossibly quirky characters in this ensemble include an old Jewish man in New York who berates everyone he meets, a terribly despondent father in the Southwest, and a street performer in Astoria with a bad heart and 10 jars of peanut butter in her refrigerator (isn't that wacky?) There are two other main characters, each more precious than the others. There's a man in Vermont with his son. They shave their heads on a whim to look like Michael Jordan, isn't that cute? And they patter on in a most unrealistic way--imagine a grade school child who draws crayon pictures in class. Now imagine the same kid involved in pithy banter and uttering lines like this--"Do you really think that subliminal mind control is the way to bring up a healthy, free-thinking child?" Priceless. And a young woman taking care of her terminal mother in a trailer. She wears winter hats year round to make people smile, collects photos of crime victims and their mothers, and has people send her audio tapes from places around the work (like a diner in China). That way she can go around uttering cute foreign phrases when she has no idea what they mean. Why utilize only one quirk when you can really layer it on?

After about an hour of this whimsical merriment, it's time for something more serious. With mood music cueing you to every emotion you should feel, our crazy cast gets decidedly more maudlin. All the precious quirks are dropped. Now we get attempted suicide, terminal illness and the repercussions of rape among other things. No longer content to be a bit of a lark, "Mind The Gap" now attempts to discuss the human condition and the frailty of life.

But don't worry about anything too serious. After a bit of soul searching and contemplation, we get to the most outrageously contrived ending possible. All of our disparate souls end up in New York crossing paths with each other and learning how to live again. What uplift and inspiration--not a moment of the emotion real or earned and not a bit of it believable.

I'm sorry to be a cynic (again) for the many of you who will adore this movie. Nothing pleases me more than to genuinely connect with a film--to laugh, cry and feel. But, for me, a film has to earn genuine emotion by being genuine--not by sitcom contrivance and feel good cliche. KGHarris, 11/06.