Ray must find his runaway father Mickey before he starts another bloodbath.

4k movies reviews
“Ray Donovan” was one of my favorite shows that I followed for seven long years. I still remember watching the entire first season in a couple of nights. Later on, as with almost any show that drags on for years, the series had some ridiculous plot twists, some stories that were sucked out of thin air, new unnecessary characters, or the not-so-reasonable disappearance of old ones. But the show still held the bar high and each season allowed its fans to dive headfirst into the strange and slightly insane world of the Donovan family. Even when the setting moved from sunny California to dystopian New York, Ray Donovan didn’t move into a yellow cab like any normal Manhattanite, but still managed to drive around in his own powerful car with a baseball bat in the trunk. Ray’s long plans to drive somewhere and talk on the phone, or to be tense and concentrate on the road, remained a trademark of the show.

Nevertheless, in 2020, the series was shut down. Not shut down, but shut down. And that, it must be said, was, of course, just a spit in the direction of all viewers and fans of the series. This is not the first time such stories happen, and in general, a rare show can boast a good ending, but it does not make us feel any better. The story was left halfway through, so you decide what happened next. But such an ending couldn’t even be called an open finale. The series simply came to a halt. Eventually, two years later, “Ray Donovan. The Movie,” which finally drew a line under all the wailing of all the main characters. The story was finally finished. This does not mean that nothing else will happen in the Donovan family, just that the creators of the series ended all open conflicts and did not create new ones. Curiously, the seventh season had only 10 episodes, while all the others had 12 each. So this movie can be called a belated two series glued together into one big one. Even the on-screen credits, made as a typical TV series and not a movie, can prove it.

What can we say about the film itself? Nothing really. There aren’t any notable artistic features in the picture. In many ways, of course, this is a credit to the show, which was perfectly staged and well acted. “Ray Donovan” was created in the golden age of TV series with eminent actors in the frame, with the necessary elaboration of the characters and with the sprawling, almost cinematic shooting. So “Ray Donovan. The Movie” is shot in exactly the same quality style. There’s no point in describing the plot of “The Movie” either, except to note flashbacks to Ray in his Boston youth, featuring a young Mickey Donovan, nicely and quite accurately played by Bill Heck. Otherwise, it’s business as usual: a couple of fights, a dragging narrative, again, car rides, family conversations. I guess the ending could have been different and much earlier, but overall it is exactly what it should be for every member of this charismatic and appealing Donovan family.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (59.0 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 2.00:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.00:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles
English, English SDH.