Rating: 
Summary: Too many plot holes
Review: This movie had great actors who all did a great a job, but the holes in the plot were very distracting. Namely, 1) How did the bad guys know the girl had a six-digit number in her head that they needed? Weren't they in jail after the subway incident? 2) How did they install all those cameras everywhere? 3) Wouldn't the drugs the doctors were giving the girl have incapacitated her at least a little? 4) What did those bodies they found floating have to do with anything? 5) Why was the deadline 5 o'clock? What was so urgent about them getting that number after they had waited 10 years? If anyone has any insight, please share!
Rating: 
Summary: She May Not Tell--But I Will
Review: Don't Say A Word is a "modest" thriller, that aims high, but ultimately ends up off its target.Dr. Nathan Conrad (Michael Douglas) and his wife (Famke Jansen) are shocked, when their daughter Jessie (Skye McCole Bartusiak) is kiddnapped. She is taken for ransom the Conrads are warned by her captor (Sean Bean) that they must do what he wants quickly, or she will die. The Doctor's only hope for her safe return, rests with a troubled mental patient named Elizabeth (Brittany Murphy), and a six digit number. The film is based on the best selling novel by Andrew Klavan and directed by Gary (Kiss The Girls) Fleder. The problem I have with this film is that, quite frankly, it plods along too much for my tastes. The suspense is muted by a lot of atmosphere and long dialogue-heavy scenes. By the time any payoff comes, you can spot what's going to happen, before it does. The acting is ok, but as usual, Bean stands out as a great bad guy My problems with the movie not withstanding, I still enjoyed most of the bonus material, included on the DVD. Director Gary Fleder's audio commentary is pretty good. But even better are the actor insights on specific scenes by Michael Douglas, Sean Bean, Brittany Murphy, Famke Jansen and Oliver Platt There are three deleted Scenes and a comprehensive series of featurettes. Broken down into three parts: preproduction, filmming, and post production, give you more than just a passing look behind the scenes. Some stuff is repeated but I can let that slide if it doesn't happen too often. Rounding out the disc's extras are
storyboard-to-screen comparisons and an ad for the Wall Street DVD, starring Michael Douglas, but no theatrical trailer for the film itself. Recommended as a rental only if you must
Rating:
Summary: Better yet--don't watch
Review: I think the rule for a Michael Douglas film has to be if he plays a bad guy (as in, for example, A Perfect Murder 1998) or when the film's director has enough prestige to actually direct Douglas (e.g., Traffic 2000 directed by Steven Soderbergh) the movie might be worth watching, otherwise forget it. Here Douglas is Dr. Nathan Conrad, god's gift to psychiatry and the good life, with a beautiful wife, a darling eight-year-old daughter, an opulently-decorated apartment, and a thriving practice--so much so he does some "pro bono" shrinking. In short he is an all-around good guy, fabulously successful, admired by all. Of course in a movie these fantasy-world advantages might be a little hard to overcome. Usually heroes like this are the sort of pablum fed to artistically unsophisticated middle-aged execs so that they will have something to fall asleep to in front of their hotel room TV. I think this would have worked better if Douglas's character were a little compromised, maybe make him a womanizer or somebody who abuses his practice or at least cheats on his income taxes. The subject of his pro bono work is the catatonic Elisabeth Burrows played fetchingly by Brittany Murphy. In addition to being catatonic she is also quick with the multiple personalities and can job the shrinks to distraction. Enter the complication: the girl holds some numbers in her head that some crooks want. They give Conrad until five p.m. to shrink it out of her or they will kill his daughter whom they have kidnaped. Right, this could happen. Meanwhile they have magically installed cameras in Conrad's apartment and at the asylum lock-up, god only knows how. Furthermore, Conrad's wife (Skye McCole Bartusiak) is temporarily bed-ridden because of a skiing accident. Every time either she or Conrad makes a move a phone rings and it is the bad guys (led by Sean Bean) on the other end saying Big Brother is watching and if you don't behave we will kill your daughter. Aside from the absurdities of the premise, there is the direction by Gary Fleder to consider. He might have made a passable made-for-TV kind of production if he had just played it straight, but no, he wanted to be creative (like Christopher Nolan of Memento fame, perhaps) and so chopped up the time sequence. Perhaps this was an attempt to camouflage the fatuous plot. No doubt Fleder and the clueless producers liked this because it allowed them to begin the movie with an inane action/adventure scene including a fire-balled vehicle and some "authentic" football-betting talk. After about twenty minutes of "Huh?" action, Fleder then allows the players to talk the plot and we realize that there are two time lines ten years apart. No doubt he also reveals how Bartusiak broke her leg, but I didn't stick around for that. Bottom line: there are at least a thousand movies better. Pick one.
Rating: 
Summary: Pedestrian yet Creepy tale works well on DVD
Review: This is yet another suspense vehicle for Michael Douglas. Douglas is starting to look tired in this one but these types of roles seem to fit him perfectly just the same. The plot is not all that bad even though it gets predictable along the way. The film somehow remains interesting based in part to the strong performances by the main cast. Brittany Murphy turns in a good performance as the institutionalized teenager from whom psychiatrist Douglas must extract information to get his own daughter back from bad guy Sean Bean. Thus, the film acts as both a thriller and a mystery. The finale is very good and very unsuspected considering the previous settings. From a visual perspective the finale is quite creepy and curiously resembles the Halloween genre, but is very well done and very effective. I enjoyed this film much better on DVD than when I saw it in the movie complex.
Rating:
Summary: A fun thriller
Review: The first time I watched "don't say a word" I didn't realy like it. then I went out and rented it again and thought it was great. The second time around I noticed things that I didn't notice the first time. This led me to understand and appreciate the movie. Don't say a word is a clever thriller with a great cast and stylish directing. It did seem a little bit riddiculous at times, but it had some clever plot twists. Overall "Don't say a word is a winner." SCORE OVERALL: 88/100 B PLOT: 17/20 B
CAST: 18/20 A-
DIRECTION 17/20 B
FUN: 18/20 A-
Special Effects: 18/20 A- CONTENT VIOLENCE: 6
SEX: 3
LANGUAGE: 7 Rated "R" for Intense Violence and Language
Rating:
Summary: Don't Say A Word
Review: I found this movie to have an interesting and compelling story. With lead actors such as Michael Douglas and Sean Bean, you should be able to make a fairly decent movie. That is what this movie is, fairly decent. So many scenes in the movie smack of other movies, that you may find yourself feeling a great sense of déjà vu' all the way through the movie. While this movie seems to smack of unoriginality, it is still worth watching. The premise: MINOR SPOILER Michael Douglas plays a wealthy psychologist who is called in by his friend who works at the New York City loony bin. His friend introduces him to a young girl who, by all appearances, is catatonic. He gets her to open up a little bit, but leaves to go home. He goes home to his beautiful wife, played by Famke Janssen, and his daughter. When he gets up the next day, prepared to spend Thanksgiving day with his family, he finds that his daughter is missing. What follows, is a rather decent movie about a family man who is faced with his worst nightmare.
Rating: 
Summary: An exceptional movie, good stuff but with sad undertones
Review: This movie is absolutely perfect in more than one respect. It combines all that can be expected from the best action thrillers, with a lot of interesting, mostly positive, psychology. It does radiate good vibrations most of the time. However, this is also a complex movie, with a sort of progression inside; it also left me a sad, uneasy feeling: as the story progresses and we get closer to the final happy conclusion for Jessie, the movie also somehow seem to fall into a sadder and sadder atmosphere. The end episode at Hart Island and the liberation of Jessie happen in a dark, rather frightening atmosphere and surroundings. The epitome of that downwrad progression is the very final shot with a lot of internal tension between the characters, an impression nearly more of sadness than joy (although Jessie has just been freed), rather sad dark-blue colors, and lights blinking everywhere (which is a rather threatening ambience, if you consider it from a distance). So much for the hints of a sad progression.
The better sides now: the story itself is extremely interesting and very original; the characters are great, especially Conrad of course, who manages to focus so much energy and determination in a short timeframe to solve all the problems. Absolutely each and every scene is great, in one way or another; the robbery, Dr Conrad, the Conrad breakfast, the shock of Jessie's disparition, the lift, the morgue, the drive, Nathan's wife, the office, Elizabeth, Jessy and the kidnappers, Aggie's Battle, thesubway, etc.
The best scene, by far, is Hart Island: Elizabeth memories, then al the rest: the first necounter with the kidnappers, the epic quest for the number, with all the good details ; the determination of Nathan Conrad; the sad but accurate memories of Elizabeteh father's death and burial; the number; the discovery; the battle; the conslusion...
My mind just sort of gulped every moment of the Hart Island episode (that is mostly true of the whole movie anyway).
I've seen plenty of good movies, but this one is probably one of the best, in its own gloomy particular way; it has a wonderful, special, sort of appeal.
The atmosphere is very original and interesting, the shots, the background colors too.
This is also a very demanding movie, in that it requires close attention from the spectator; however it is also well conducted in that the attention needed is never too much, and it is always pleasant anyway.
In all the movie, most characters have a beautiful sort of aura, especially Nathan Conrad of course, but also Elizabeth, his wife, and his daughter.
I really had a great, wonderful time watching this movie, and I am sure I will watch it again several times, and always enjoy it all the same.
Rating:
Summary: Saved By the Girls
Review: Here's a new one: psychiatrist as action hero. First you hire Michael Douglas and then... you get the idea. When psychiatrist Nathan Conrad (Douglas) discovers his daughter has been kidnapped, and the key to retrieving her is a six-digit number buried in the jumbled mind of psych patient Elisabeth Burrows (Brittany Murphy), the jutting jaw goes into action to save his family from the bad guys, particularly Patrick Koster (Sean Bean), who want to retrieve a stolen gem hidden away for ten years while they were in prison. I have to admit that everyone in this film performed up to expectations. Sean Bean makes a cold, calculating, obsessed villain, as he has done before in GoldenEye (1995) and Patriot Games (1992). Twenty-five-year-old Brittany Murphy seems to specialize in playing troubled teens - she was pudgy and perfect in Clueless (1995) and perfectly crazy in Girl, Interrupted (1999) - so she doesn't disappoint here. Famke Janssen, a former Bond Girl and a good actress in spite of that pedigree, plays the laid-up wife, Aggie Conrad, with grit and determination to overcome a script with no surprises and no cleverness to call its own. And that's where Michael Douglas comes in. Douglas seems to specialize in macho, defender-of-family types, whether he brought the trouble into his own home, as in Fatal Attraction (1987), or when trouble is thrust upon him, as in Disclosure (1992) and Traffic (2000). But always Douglas is the steely nerved action hero when push comes to shove, even if his job description is a little wide of the mark. Indeed, toward the end of the movie, when time is short and his situation is grim, his aggressive approach is invaluable in wresting what he needs from his troubled patient, kind of like sixty-second psychotherapy. No matter. There were exciting moments that make Don't Say a Word diverting if not elevating. Oliver Platt as Conrad's colleague, Louis Sachs - similarly threatened by the bad guys who seem exceptionally well funded for recent convicts in need of a $10 million gem - did well with a minor role. My only complaint, aside from the script (Anthony Peckham, based on Andrew Klavan's novel) and the journeyman directing (Gary "Kiss the Girls" Fleder), is the wasted talent of Jennifer Esposito in the nearly disposable role of Detective Sandra Cassidy. She does the best she can - at least she gets a cellphone like everyone else. Indeed, in spite of this being what one might call a "Michael Douglas film," the female players (Janssen, Esposito, and especially Murphy) were the real stand-outs. I couldn't quite believe a psychiatrist-pugilist, but I could believe the women.
Rating:
Summary: I'll Never Tell...
Review: This high-paced action thriller stars Michael Douglas as Dr. Nathan Conrad, a high-profile psychiatrist whose daughter Jessie has just been kidnapped by a bunch of thugs. Douglas is told by the leader Patrick (Sean Bean) that he must extract a six-digit number from a patient in a psychiatric hospital. The patient, Elisabeth, played superbly by Brittany Murphy, has a connection with Patrick. Ten years earlier, Elisabeth's father was involved in a bank robbery with Patrick. However, he decieved the others and now Patrick is out for revenge. So, they have kidnapped Conrad's daughter on Thanksgiving day, and he has until 5 pm to extract the six digit code and deliver it to Patrick or Conrad's daughter will be killed. I enjoyed this movie very much, but the plot is difficult to follow, which is why I gave it four stars instead of five. You must keep your eyes glued to the screen, or you will be lost. The first fifteen minutes of the film are critical, so watch these closely. The acting, especially by Douglas, Murphy, and Bean is excellent. Famke Janssen does a good job as Douglas' wife who has suffered a broken leg in a skiing accident. This is an exciting movie, but just be sure to follow the plot closely.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Think Too Hard
Review: Cheesy thriller with so many plot holes that it can only be described as a dangerously ripe slice of Swiss! Even so, the performances are so good and the editing so quickly paced that the film still pays off for those who are willing to suspend their disbelief. Michael Douglas is a noted psychiatrist who is under pressure to unlock a long-buried secret from a patient's mind within 24 hours to save his young daughter who's been kidnapped on the day before Thanksgiving by a desperate gang of criminals just released from jail who killed the patient's father 10 years ago when he double-crossed them during a high profile robbery and who are now following Douglas' every move having bugged his home with secreted cameras while his wife lies helpless in bed with a broken leg she sustained in a recent skiing accident ... oh, never mind, you get the idea. Douglas is great, playing his character with that on-the-edge, about-to-snap tension he's practically patented in film. Brittany Murphy is even better in the showy part of the psychiatric patient whose demeanor wavers between simmering aggressor and traumatized victim. The rest of the cast lends able support in their fairly stereotypical roles (the ruthless gang mastermind; the dedicated lady detective; the crusty police veteran with a heart of gold; the sweet but plucky kidnapped daughter, etc.). Oliver Platt's turn as a smarmy colleague of Douglas' especially stand outs. The DVD offers an anamorphic widescreen film-to-video transfer that is wonderfully sharp, and the sound transfer is of equally high quality. There are loads of extra features, including deleted scenes, a "making of" featurette, and lots more. Of course, it's best not to spend too much time considering the filmmakers' art; a close examination of the film's production techniques only work against the plot's shaky credibility.
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