After she earned success as a child actor after 1991’s Addams Family became a hit, Christina Ricci struggled to adapt to adult roles. For a look at where Ricci stood in her early 20s, we go to 2002’s Miranda.

Set in England, Frank (John Simm) works as a librarian. His life changes one day when alluring Miranda (Ricci) enters his facility.

The timid Frank declares his affection for Miranda and this launches a whirlwind romance with a variety of complications. Miranda may not be who she seems to be, and Frank needs to deal with these complexities.

To be sure, Ricci has enjoyed a steady career, but as implied in my opener, her fame really peaked in the early-mid 90s. While she still works regularly, she never quite became the major star her talent implied she could be.

Essentially an update on the film noir genre, Miranda desperately tries to create a title character who inspires intrigue due to the mystery that surrounds her. The film works overtime to turn Miranda into an object of desire and fascination.

And it fails.

Of course, Ricci looks lovely, so I don’t fault her appearance in terms of desirability. However, she doesn’t seem able to pull off the moody “femme fatale” vibe necessary to add spark to the part.

The film doles out details about Miranda slowly and sporadically, but her purpose eventually turns clear. These choices lack a lot to make them compelling and they don’t add to the suspense or impact of the tale.

Frank lacks much to make him an interesting character as well. We’ve seen scores of sad-sack sorts who get in over their heads when they fall for The Wrong Woman, and nothing about the flick threatens to turn Frank into anything more than a cliché.

Miranda simply tends to feel stuck in neutral too much of the time. As much as it wants to entrance us with its story of troubled love, it doesn’t get there.

Instead, we wind up left with a slow and less than intriguing view of a lonely man who goes for a woman of mystery. Nothing here breaks away from the pack.

Miranda appears in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Despite some positives, the image came with some issues.

First and foremost, we got the wrong aspect ratio. Though the film presented its opening credits in the correct 2.35:1, the rest of the flick went with 1.78:1.

Why? I have no idea, but it’s clearly incorrect.

Sharpness varied. Some shots offered good delineation, though the image could seem a bit overcranked and came with some edge haloes.

Despite a bit of grain, I suspected some noise reduction, especially because the movie occasionally came across as too smoothed out. General delineation remained adequate but these exceptions created distractions.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred. Print flaws remained absent, though the flick wobbled a little at times.

Colors leaned toward a mix of reds and teal. These fared reasonably well.

Blacks appeared deep and dense, while low-light shots offered appealing clarity. Even with some good elements, the negatives became an issue.

Oddly for a movie made in 2002, Miranda came only with a DTS-HD MA stereo soundtrack. That was awfully primitive for a film from this era, so I docked points due to the absence of multichannel audio.

The soundscape offered good stereo spread for music and allowed effects to broaden to the side in a passable manner. However, as a character piece, these elements didn’t show much movement so they remained subdued.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that seemed natural and distinct. Effects appeared accurate and concise, albeit without great range or ambition.

Music showed nice range and punch. Although the mix felt adequate, it seemed behind the times for a project from 2002.

No extras appear on the disc.

Presented as an update on film noir, Miranda becomes a forgettable affair. It desperately attempts to create intrigue but it lacks the substance it needs to achieve those goals. The Blu-ray comes with problematic visuals, mediocre audio and no supplements. Not much about this film or release succeeds.