Don't Say A Word is in many ways a run-of-the-mill thriller. Michael Douglas and Famke Jannsen play a middle-class urban couple with a cute young daughter and the perfect American life. Douglas plays Dr. Nathan Conrad, a respected psychiatrist. On the day before Thanksgiving their lives are turned upside down when their daughter is kidnapped. The kidnappers don't want money, as such; they want Dr. Conrad's services. If he wants to see his daughter again, he must convince a psychiatric patient to reveal a long-kept secret.
Director Gary Fleder (Kiss the Girls) owes a few debts here. This film borrows plot devices from Ransom, Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Negotiator, and What Lies Beneath. The biggest flaws of the film are its over-reliance on cliches and some grand implausibilities. The cliches are integrated well enough into they story line that they tend to work for the most part. The one exception has to do with a disappearing body. I saw it coming a mile away. Implausibility is not a fatal flaw in a film, but this one clearly pushes the limits with unanswered questions. One example that doesn't reveal too much will make the point. The villain has waited ten years to get this information, but gives Dr. Conrad a few hours. Sometimes implausible plot points are necessary to get where we want to go; this one seems to be a result of sheer laziness.
In spite of these flaws, the film is not without redeeming value. The pacing of the film is nearly flawless, and the director does an excellent job with the editing and visual elements of the film. Performances are solid and occasionally inspired. Particularly noteworthy are the performances by the hero (Michael Douglas) and the villain (Sean Bean who played a similar type in Patriot Games). Skye McCole Bartesiak does an excellent job as the kidnapped daughter and Brittany Murphy is excellent as the psychiatric patient.
This film was number one at the box office this past weekend and will probably continue to do well. It is not a great film; it might be a moderately good film. If audiences keep coming it will most likely be for the therapeutic value. Like most crime films and many Westerns, this film presents a model family whose lives are disrupted by a seemingly random act of violence. We sit on the edges of out seats and watch hopefully, as order is restored and good triumphs over evil. This is a message that touches our deepest longings for order and justice, and this is a message we long to hear, perhaps now more than ever.
Director Gary Fleder (Kiss the Girls) owes a few debts here. This film borrows plot devices from Ransom, Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Negotiator, and What Lies Beneath. The biggest flaws of the film are its over-reliance on cliches and some grand implausibilities. The cliches are integrated well enough into they story line that they tend to work for the most part. The one exception has to do with a disappearing body. I saw it coming a mile away. Implausibility is not a fatal flaw in a film, but this one clearly pushes the limits with unanswered questions. One example that doesn't reveal too much will make the point. The villain has waited ten years to get this information, but gives Dr. Conrad a few hours. Sometimes implausible plot points are necessary to get where we want to go; this one seems to be a result of sheer laziness.
In spite of these flaws, the film is not without redeeming value. The pacing of the film is nearly flawless, and the director does an excellent job with the editing and visual elements of the film. Performances are solid and occasionally inspired. Particularly noteworthy are the performances by the hero (Michael Douglas) and the villain (Sean Bean who played a similar type in Patriot Games). Skye McCole Bartesiak does an excellent job as the kidnapped daughter and Brittany Murphy is excellent as the psychiatric patient.
This film was number one at the box office this past weekend and will probably continue to do well. It is not a great film; it might be a moderately good film. If audiences keep coming it will most likely be for the therapeutic value. Like most crime films and many Westerns, this film presents a model family whose lives are disrupted by a seemingly random act of violence. We sit on the edges of out seats and watch hopefully, as order is restored and good triumphs over evil. This is a message that touches our deepest longings for order and justice, and this is a message we long to hear, perhaps now more than ever.