Don't Say a Word

Rating:
Summary: RECOMMENDED
Review: I rented this movie expecting to hate it. Instead this movie surprised me with a good plot, good acting and ended up being a good movie. This movie makes an evening fly by, highly recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Watch Brittany Murphy for Future
Review: The #1 reason for watching this movie is discovering young actress Brittany Murphy who is outstanding as Michael Douglas's psychiatric patient. In order to save his own daughter's life, Douglas must discover a number that is locked inside this patient's brain. That number will lead to the recovery of a fabulous jewel. Douglas's and Murphy's scenes together are all terrific. The rest of the movie is a rather conventional Hollywood thriller about good guy Douglas sweating bullets under the demands of bad guy Sean Bean and how Douglas will save the day and triumph over Bean. It's a night's entertainment and I enjoyed it. I can't imagine wanting to own my own copy though.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing-happening thriller
Review: The best actor in this movie is Brittany Murphy. Shouldn't I had said Michael Douglas? Well, he kind of slacks off in the beginning of the movie, and gets better and better as it goes on. Murphy as a mental case is constant suprise and good performing throught the entire film. "Don't Say A Word" is a mesh of all the low key and run of the mill thrillers and comes out as a decent, run of the mill thriller. Any cliches here? This movie is so riddled with star power with Douglas, Murphy, Sean Bean, Famke Janssen and Oliver Platt, but fails to convey some sort of plot meaning. The movie is very subtle and low, and pretty much doesn't explode until the end. A definite rent, but a marginal buy.

Rating:
Summary: Don't See This Movie
Review: If you go into Don't Say a Word expecting another Fatal Attraction or, to a lesser extent a Basic Instinct, you'll be disappointed to know that it's little more than a Kiss the Girls/A Perfect Murder wannabe. The contrived plot finds Michael Douglas as an uptown NYC psychatrist (real stretch, huh) forced into treating a mental patient with a two million dollar number in her head. This after his picture-esque Norman Rockwell-type family is uprooted by the kidnapping of his nine-year-old daughter.

It's during this twenty minute set-up where the film really lost me. Director Gary Fleder tries to establish Douglas and co. as the ideallic middle-to-upper class family, and thus envoke sympathy for them. Instead they come off so sickingly sweet that you're almost rooting for the bad guys to deliver them a healthy dose of stern reality. The biggest problem with this, though, is that Sean Bean, as the mastermind of a jewel heist and the subsequnt kidnapping, is so bland that he hardly evokes any kind of reaction at all.

So we're left watching Douglas jump through hoops, ala Die Hard with a Vengeance, and I still haven't even mentioned Britney Murphy who delivers the kind of over-the-top performance that usually wins supporting actor Oscars (this isn't a compliment). For anyone who's seem the trailer, the only comforting bit of information I can offer you is that her now infamous "I'll never tell" line comes early in the film and is all but forgiven (if not forgotten) by movie's end.

Bad acting must be contagious too, because she isn't even half as bad as Famke Janssen or Jennifer Esposito, both trying their hands at roles which exceed their grasp. In fact Janssen's so horrendous (as usual) that I couldn't help but hope she'd be killed off before any real acting would be required of her. And no one is spared the bug, not even Michael Douglas, who seems to have fallen into Arnold Schwarzenegger mode with psychological thrillers, recycling stories & characters just to make a quick buck.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Say a word.
Review: This movie is a standout in the never ending unrealistic ransom suspense-drama that is trying to be an action movie genre. Michael Douglas gives an above average performance. Douglas is a great actor, but his greatness and talent is only reached in suduction suspense films like Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction or urban dramas like Traffic. All this movie is, is the old worn out ransom story with new ideas and an unusual twist of character development and a flashback type theme. Douglas is a psychiatrist with a beautiful wife and a lovely daughter. On Thanksgiving night he's called in by a friend in the field to talk to a young woman who has just viciously attacked someone and has been in and out of institutions and has along list of mental problems. He has no luck and leaves for home. The next day he wakes up to find...yes, of course, his daughter is missing. Shortly after he is called by the kidnappers. The unusual part is that they don't want 100 million dollars or etc. They want a six digit code that's locked away in the young pacients head. The plot is a roller coaster that will keep you guessing. The climax is rather mindless and has gaps the size of the Grand Canyon, but it will please mainstream blockbuster movie fans.

Rating:
Summary: Good intense thriller
Review: A prominent psychiatrist doctor(Douglas) must get a 8 digit code from the mind of a troubled teenager(Brittany Murphy) in order to rescue his daughter who has been kidnapped by a band of ruthless bank robbers led by a enigmatic and superb Sean Bean.

The code is a 8 digit number which is the number of a coffin where the girl hide her doll which her father took to hide the red ruby that the robbers took in a bank robbery and the teenager father hide prior the robbers killed him for not telling them where the ruby was.

With various flashbacks and intense action the plot is good and adecuate.

My father went to the theatrical premier in Spain and told me that the history was intense.He was right.

Also a issue I have found on the Dvd:

The packet says that includes a French Dolby Surround audio track when in reality is a Spanish Dolby Surround audio track.

I Hope you can correct this issue.

Rating:
Summary: A thriller that plays by the rules.
Review: Originality doesn't exactly seem to the director Gary Fleder's strong suit in "Don't Say A Word," which puts actor Michael Douglas in a comfort zone as a father whose family is put in jeopardy by someone out for something he holds the key to. As far as thrillers go these days, the film takes us right where we know it's going to go, but it's well-made, with terrific performances from Douglas and the rest of the cast, and a director whose competency in the genre is in full vigor.

The story is adapted from the novel by Andrew Klavan, and begins by introducing us to a heist situation that goes sour. Moving ahead ten years, we meet Dr. Nathan Conrad (Michael Douglas), an adolescent psychologist known for his success with troubled teens. On the morning of Thanksgiving Day, he discovers his daughter has been kidnapped, held by the men seen in the opening scene who are demanding a piece of information tucked away in the mind of Nathan's newest patient, an 18-year-old catatonic.

As far as these situations go, Nathan finds himself in a tight spot. The kidnappers are able to keep watch over his apartment, leaving him little room for thwarting their demands. His wife, Aggie (Famke Janssen), is bedridden due to a skiing accident, virtually leaving her in harm's way when he ventures back to the hospital to question the easily-unsettled Elisabeth (Brittany Murphy).

Like most thrillers, there are some technical issues concerning minor plot points, many of which are easily overlooked. There's the question of how the kidnappers were able to set up surveillance on the Conrads with such ease, or how, despite the amount of security surrounding Elisabeth, they were able to plant a bug in her hospital room. These assumptions to unanswered questions are hardly ignorable, but do not exactly hinder the overall success of the film.

Fleder is able to keep things moving very steadily, providing a window of time that keeps us in the moment as Nathan races against the clock to progressively unlock the haunting memories in Elisabeth's subconscious. Not only that, but we are also given some well-constructed scenes between kidnapper and kidnappee, as well as some plot provided to the injured Aggie. The subplot involving a female cop played by Jennifer Esposito is a basic throwaway twist, but it fits in with the material nicely.

Once again, Douglas is at the top of his game, recalling his family instinct from "Fatal Attraction" and his drive for answers from "Basic Instinct," and fitting them into his character's father status. He's stern and emotional, two things we love him for, and manages some effective moments with Murphy, who is well on her way to stardom. Janssen is, as always, a joy to watch onscreen, and Sean Bean, as the standard villain, is more or less conniving without being truly menacing.

Once things get moving, there are some plot twists and developments that contain the element of surprise, while others are foreseen minutes before they occur. But "Don't Say A Word" is a thriller that plays by the rules, and on that basis, it's entertaining without concerning itself with fresh tactics.

Rating:
Summary: Slick thriller with an absurd story
Review: An implausible plot turns absurd by the end in this psychological thriller. Strong performances and good production values can't redeem a storyline that asks us not only to suspend disbelief, but to relinquish our notions of reality. That is all well and good for fantasy or sci-fi offerings, but this film purports to be a serious psychological drama in the Hitchcock tradition, and in that regard it is sorely lacking.

Plot holes abound and the psychological aspect is glossed over. Other than Dr. Conrad (Michael Douglas) and Elizabeth (Brittany Murphy) there isn't much character development. I have to give director Gary Fleder credit for a fine job with the look and feel of the film. With this film, Fleder has broken out of his predominantly TV resume to show that he has the ability to play in this league. Fleder has a good sense for what makes a scene suspenseful. His use of the camera is excellent, giving us some interesting first person perspectives in addition to scenes that are generally well prepared. The sets are realistic (especially the Montreal subway station that was turned into the Canal Street station in New York) and well constructed for suspense with lots of places for tight, cramped shots that turn up the psychological pressure. However, Fleder seems so intent on bringing us a technically well crafted film, that he misses the fact that his story is leaving the galaxy.

Michael Douglas gives his typical fine performance; smart, tough and stubborn with a soft side. However, the real story in this film is Brittany Murphy. Murphy delivered an excellent performance in "Girl Interrupted" and then bounced around in a number of minor roles in minor films until landing this part. Here Murphy cranks it up about tenfold as the disturbed, but brilliant young woman who has a secret locked in her head. She walks a fine line between sanity and derangement and slips in and out so easily that it is frighteningly convincing. She completely immerses herself in the role and gives what is, for my money, one of the best supporting roles of the year.

Overall, this is a slick thriller that derails when a contrived story goes off credibility's deep end. I rated it a 6/10 on the strength of the acting and some nice technical elements. But, Hitchcock it ain't.

Rating:
Summary: Did anyone bring the script?
Review: There are common phrases forever implanted in our brains. These expressions help us to get through life more easily. When we travel, for example, we say to each other and to ourselves, "Don't forget to bring the (fill in the blank)!" When the crew of "Don't Say a Word" went on location, someone should have said, "Don't forget to bring the script!" Judging from the movie's jumbled mess of a plot, said script must have gone missing. Don't say I didn't warn you.

The good news is that the film stars Michael Douglas. Though he's been in all kinds of movies, he's best known for his roles in thrillers, ranging from "Fatal Attraction" to "Basic Instinct" to "A Perfect Murder". Whether he's playing the hero or the villain, he always delights us as he inevitably goes from suave and sophisticated to down and dirty. He's done it so often that there must be some sort of inside joke involved. Even when the thriller is a weak one, we can relax because we know he'll be back, hopefully in a better one.

Dr Nathan Conrad [Douglas] is a successful New York City psychiatrist specializing in treating disturbed teenagers. He works in a beautiful office, makes $200 an hour, lives in a fabulous apartment, has the perfect wife and daughter, and drives a Land Rover. [Douglas, the suave and sophisticated, personified!] It's Thanksgiving Eve, always a sign of big trouble ahead in a movie thriller. Conrad is on his way home with the turkey, the unwitting symbol of the movie, when he receives a phone call from an old colleague, Dr. Sachs [Oliver Platt]. The man begs him to come to the mental hospital he runs in order to help a young patient, Elisa [Brittany Murphy], who is having a severe crisis. Crisis is an understatement. Elisa looks like she is trying out for a remake of "The Exorcist". She makes no sense [possibly having been thoroughly confused by the script?], and Conrad promises to check on her again in a day or so. He goes home, not knowing what we already have figured out, which is that he won't soon forget this Thanksgiving.

Many of the elements of a good Douglas thriller are here - lush photography, well designed sets, properly ominous music, and a good supporting cast, especially Sean Bean as a very nasty villain and Skye McCole Bartosiak as Conrad's young daughter. The script or the lack of one cancels out all of this.

Like most recent thrillers, "Don't Say a Word" isn't content to start quietly and then build tension. It starts with an explosive bank robbery, which takes place ten years before Conrad's fateful encounter with Elisa. The scene gets our attention, but it also gives us so much information that we spend the rest of the movie way ahead of the characters. To make up for this, director Gary Fleder uses all sort of flashy photography techniques, which are interesting to look at but don't fool us into thinking that what we expect to happen isn't going to happen. Then, there is the matter of Elisa. We find out that she's been in mental institutions since the time of the robbery. We are told she is only pretending to be crazy because she is using hospitals to hide out in. Since she was eight years old, we ask? The character becomes so unbelievable to us that we start looking for other flaws in the story. Here's one: Though her father is officially listed as a John Doe, the girl is seen accompanying two or three men on the ferry carrying his coffin to the island he is buried on. Later, she is found wandering alone on the island, and no one connects her to the burial. What?

Eventually, the movie ends with a rather gripping climax. Many viewers, though, will be long gone before it happens. They'll be looking for the script, perhaps.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Say A Word
Review: The title of this movie says it best: DON'T SAY A WORD

To see this movie too many times is just once,
If you can't figure it out in the opening scene you're a dunce!

No substance - just fluff... POOF!