Don't Say A Word (DVD)

Having rented two thoroughly enjoyable films from www.dvdsontap.com, which were the subjects of my last two opinions, I should have suspected that that most unbreakable of legal dictums would finally catch up with me. Hollywood is clearly guilty of producing a huge number of highly forgettable films and the law of averages had decreed that it was my time to rent one. Don’t Say a Word (DSaW) is perhaps more guilty than most of sliding into the mire ...
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Michael Douglas stars as Dr. Nathan Conrad, a gifted psychiatrist who specialises in helping troubled children. He is blessed not only with wealth, but an impossibly beautiful wife in the shapely form of Famke Jansen and the necessary ‘cute-as-a-button’ daughter completes the storybook image. Unfortunately for the film the clichés do not end here.

His return for an idyllic family Thanksgiving is interrupted by a call from ... more

Having rented two thoroughly enjoyable films from www.dvdsontap.com, which were the subjects of my last two opinions, I should have suspected that that most unbreakable of legal dictums would finally catch up with me. Hollywood is clearly guilty of producing a huge number of highly forgettable films and the law of averages had decreed that it was my time to rent one. Don’t Say a Word (DSaW) is perhaps more guilty than most of sliding into the mire of mediocrity as it boasts a cast laden with talent.

Michael Douglas stars as Dr. Nathan Conrad, a gifted psychiatrist who specialises in helping troubled children. He is blessed not only with wealth, but an impossibly beautiful wife in the shapely form of Famke Jansen and the necessary ‘cute-as-a-button’ daughter completes the storybook image. Unfortunately for the film the clichés do not end here.

His return for an idyllic family Thanksgiving is interrupted by a call from fellow shrink, the criminally underused Oliver Platt, who requests he ply his trade on troubled Elizabeth (Brittany Murphy). The next morning Conrad wakes to find his daughter has been abducted and is warned that she will be killed unless he uses his God-given talents to extract a number from the locked room that is Elizabeth’s mind. The number in question is a clue to the location to a jewel stolen ten years previously by Sean Bean and his gang which was in turn pilfered by none other than Elizabeth’s dad. Yawn.

In order to keep us on our toes, director Gary Fleder keeps cutting between the various elements of the story that are slowly coming together. Conrad’s sessions with Elizabeth complete with flashbacks, his daughters attempts to use her own psychological tricks on one of her captors, his wife’s various struggles and cop Jennifer Esposito’s slow piecing together of seemingly unrelated incidents. It all leads to an uninspiring denouement in a horribly over-used setting, the foggy graveyard.

As you may have guessed I was not overly enamoured with DSaW, it’s not that it’s a terrible film its just all been done before and with far greater success. Douglas, like De Niro in the similarly unimpressive The Score, is merely going through the motions. The superior Ransom to which DsaW bears more than a passing resemblance illustrates the problem with Douglas in roles like this. In scenes where the leading man needs to become physical, Gibson in Ransom looks formidable, Douglas veers more towards the laughable yet they are but 2 years different in age. Personally I would like to see him return to roles like that of the relaxed English professor in the subtle but brilliant comedy Wonder Boys.

Sean Bean takes on the role a head thug but other than looking and sounding the part is not really given much time to develop the character. Both Platt and Jansen suffer a similar fate with far too little screen time, confining their characters to two-dimensional stereotypes. Murphy emerges with the most credit as her performance is credible and contains at least some emotion so noticeably lacking elsewhere.

Fleder’s attempt to keep us in suspense with his constant cutting between stories doesn’t really succeed. The central premise is so ridiculous that suspending disbelief is a very trying task. In a move that stretches credibility even further, Bean’s thugs are equipped with an unbelievably impressive array of high-tech surveillance equipment for the pursuit of a jewel valued at just $10 million. Prompted the question, “Why bother?”

The investigation scenes with Esposito are initially so removed from the central story that it is a distraction, when it all becomes clear my reaction was much more in the “Who Cares?” camp than the “Ahh, Very Clever” train of thought. As for the countdown, an essential element in any true suspense, the story never really engrossed me enough for me to care and the contrived ending proved irritating.

Maybe it’s my cynicism coming to the fore; maybe in a different mood this would have kept me on the edge of my seat. Personally I doubt it, this is just another example of Hollywood showing unforgivable disdain for their audience, recycling tired plot lines and clichéd characters and hoping that the appeal of a star-studded cast will make people overlook the mediocrity of the film. If you want a decent suspense movie rent Panic Room or, for the real thing, any of Hitchcock’s vastly superior offerings. This is only for devoted Douglas fans.

Tomatometer: A woeful 23% - Rating taken from the excellent www.rottentomatoes.com
Running Time: 118 Minutes
 

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