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Zone's Eye View of "Don't Say A Word" |
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Synopsis of movie: Based on the novel of the same name by Andrew Klaven, the film tells the story of a New York City psychiatrist (Michael Douglas) whose daughter is kidnapped. Now for The Zone's Eye View By Laura Alber “Don’t Say a Word” is a highly suspenseful, nail-biting movie, although I’m tiring of the stereotypical Michael Douglas role. You know the one, extremely successful, wealthy, beautiful wife, kid, home, and then he nearly loses everything for one reason or another. Let’s see, off the top of my head we’ve had “A Perfect Murder”, “Fatal Attraction”, “Traffic”, “War of the Roses”, “The Game”, “The American President”, “Disclosure” and even as far back as “The Believers”. Get my point? Though he does play this role well, you have to wonder if he has the diversity to play a totally different type of role. Actually, “One Night at McCool’s” is the only one I can think of without looking at his filmography where he plays an “oddball”. I hate to say that, as I am a huge Douglas fan, but come on scriptwriters and casting agents…get this guy a new persona! Ok, now on to the actual movie at hand. Don’t Say a Word is an extremely well written screenplay adapted from Andrew Klavan’s novel, which won the Mystery Writers of America’s top prize, the “Edgar”. The action and suspense do not let up throughout the entire movie. It all begins on Thanksgiving Eve. Dr. Nathan Conrad (Douglas), a well renowned psychiatrist, is on his way home from work when he receives a call from his old colleague Dr. Louis Sachs (Oliver Platt). He needs Conrad to come down to the institution and help with a new patient that no one can seem to reach. Elisabeth Burrows (Brittany Murphy) has been to 20 different institutions and had 20 different diagnoses. Reluctantly Conrad decides to give up 5 minutes of his time for his friend to talk with this troubled 18 year old. He doesn’t get very far with the girl, and doesn’t actually try very hard on the first attempt and says he’ll come back next week, wanting to get home to his family for Thanksgiving Eve. His wife Aggie, played by Famke Janssen, is immobile due to a broken leg, and confined to her bed. After being psychoanalyzed by his 8 year old daughter Jessie (Skye McCole Bartusiak), they all go to bed. Upon waking up Conrad discovers Jessie is missing and the chain on the door has been cut. He immediately picks up the phone to call the police only the kidnappers have already tapped into the phone and are on the other end waiting. Sean Bean, playing Patrick Koster is the head of the group of kidnappers and tells Douglas that they need him to do one thing for him and they will return his daughter. 10 years ago the kidnappers pulled a bank heist, stealing a 10 million diamond, only to lose it to one of the crew with his slight of hand. Then we find out that Elisabeth (the patient) has a 6-digit number, which will allow them to find the diamond, but she guards the number with her life. So, in order for Douglas to get the numbers from Elisabeth, he has to gain her trust, diagnose her, and convince her that he’s not like the others. Not an easy task given that he only has until 5pm to do all this. Somehow, (no one is really sure how this happened), but the gang has managed to put in cameras all over the apartment watching Nathan and Aggie’s every move. During all of this chaos, police detective Sandra Cassidy (Jennifer Esposito) while working on another unrelated case, discovers a connection with the men. So, she is also trying to track them down. Dr. Conrad follows all instructions to the letter and seems to be getting somewhere with Elisabeth. It is at this part in the movie where it is very reminiscent of “Ransom”, because Michael Douglas starts making the rules. This doesn’t last long though, and it’s back to the suspense. Since Douglas can do this role with his eyes shut, he is of course wonderful in it. Famke Janssen plays the helpless and frantic mother to perfection. (Although, I couldn't help but expect for her to use her X-Men 'mind control' on them!) Jessie the daughter is one we will definitely be seeing more of, this girl has got “IT”! She has so much character and personality to her and it all shines through beautifully on film. But, the show stealer was Brittany Murphy. She is so convincingly “psychotic”, yet you can see the pain in her eyes and the paralyzing fear in her. To look into her eyes, she looks so innocent and desperate, but her other side has the ability to kill a man with a razor and force 5 guards to pull her off of the man, which is what happened at the last institution she was in. I did enjoy the movie, however, I wish there were more scenes with Dr. Conrad and Elisabeth together. Even though I say I enjoyed the movie, please note, I did not pay the $7.50 + drink and popcorn, I paid $3.50 to rent it, which is what I would advise. This price difference probably helped in my final decision on the movie. I don’t think I would be so lenient to the obvious flaws if I had paid full price. So, based on all that…I give “Don’t Say a Word” a 6 out of 10. It’s a great weekend rental!
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