Hard to Hold is a poorly written romance-drama that at least was made somewhat watchable with the nice chemistry between Rick Springfield and Janet Eilber, though that doesn’t mean both give consistent performances.
Hard to Hold
(1984)
Genre(s): Drama, Romance, Music
Kino Lorber| PG – 93 min. – $24.95 | February 23, 2021
Date Published: 03/16/2021 | Author: The Movieman
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Kino Lorber provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 2½/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Jamie Roberts (RICK SPRINGFIELD) is a rock star living the highlife when he falls for child psychologist Diana Lawson (JANET EILBER) who only has ears for classical music. Opposites attract, but his jealous ex-girlfriend (PATTI HANSEN), and songwriter, isn’t ready to give up so easily. Love is hard to find when the whole world is watching.
Quick Hit Review: Conceptually Hard to Hold could’ve been an entertaining romantic-drama, one examining the trials and tribulations of a relationship under a harsh spotlight, which is kind of what the synopsis promises. What we get instead is a plot about a rock star dealing with some sort of writer’s block, plus an ex who has some mental issues and a new love who is having commitment issues. But through all that, there’s not much tension and you’re left with the predictability knowing the two will get together, and that they do albeit in a clumsy fashion and at the airport no less. I will say, for the most part Springfield and Eilber share some nice chemistry, especially in a few of the seemingly improvised scenes. When it comes to their acting, they were actually okay however there were some moments that were at best questionable and worst, just plain laughable, one scene that comes to mind is when Diana discovers her father’s dead body, the scene was just shot so peculiar and her reaction, not to mention the score, didn’t match what should’ve been somber. Later, when Diana tells Jamie of her intentions to move away, his response was a silly “No!” that I did laugh out loud at.
Being this is the first film I’ve seen with Rick Springfield and while he’s a solid singer, to be honest not the biggest fan of his hit song, “Jessie’s Girl”, not sure of his acting skills, although the script from Tom Hedley (Flashdance, which also didn’t exactly have a strong screenplay and known mostly for a hot Jennifer Beals and the music) doesn’t do him any favors. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2½/5 |
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Features include an Audio Commentary by Entertainment Journalist and Author Bryan Reesman, an Interview (11:23) with Director Larry Peerce, a several Radio Spots (8:20) and the Theatrical Trailer (2:45). |
VIDEO – 4½/5 |
| Hard to Hold takes the stage onto Blu-ray for the first time through Kino Lorber (in their “Studio Classics” line). The film is shown in its original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and given a 1080p high-definition transfer. Since there’s no mention on the back cover of a new transfer, presumably the master was provided by Universal as-is, and for the most part, is halfway impressive. Detail on the close-ups is sharp and the original film grain and noise is still present, and colors are well balanced throughout, not seemingly artificially bolstered. I did take note of a few minor specs and scratches but they were very few and far between, and nothing I would consider all that distracting. |
AUDIO – 3½/5 |
| The disc comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track and for the most part sounds okay. Dialogue comes through with decent clarity and at the very least didn’t have too much of a hollowness that I sometimes experience with these sorts of tracks. The depth is kept to a minimum even during the concert scenes however it’s still an effective lossless track, especially for a low/mid budgeted romance-drama from 35+ years ago. |
OVERALL – 2½/5 |
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Hard to Hold is a poorly written romance-drama that at least was made somewhat watchable with the nice chemistry between Rick Springfield and Janet Eilber, though that doesn’t mean both give consistent performances. In addition, the music isn’t all that memorable, including the apparently top-5 hit song, “Love Somebody”. This Blu-ray from Kino Lorber does offer respectable video and audio transfers. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.