Don't Say a Word

Starring: Michael Douglas, Sean Bean, Brittany Murphy, Famke Janssen, Oliver Platt
Directed by: Gary Fleder
Rating: R
Genre: Thriller
Box Office: $55,001,642
2001

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: When a psychiatrist's (Michael Douglas) is kidnapped by an ex-con (Sean Bean), he is forced to extract a 6-digit number from a mental patient (Brittany Murphy) who won't talk. He must get the number or his daughter will be killed.

Review:

Tim: From the first scene to the last, Don't Say a Word keeps you in utter suspense. Michael Douglas has made a career as of late playing roles in these darker films (The Game, for example) and he gives a great performance here. He is helped with good performances by Sean Bean and Brittany Murphy. Bean has played his share of both good and bad guys, although he excels playing bad ones (remember his role as 006 in Goldeneye?

If you saw the trailer for this film, then you probably remember Murphy's haunting "I'll never tell..." line, that pretty much sums up the creepier aspects of this film. Murphy plays the traumatized mental patient very convincingly. I don't know exactly how she does it, but she could pass for a mental patient in nearly any mental hospital in the country. Her eyes and hand movements are chillingly accurate, which adds to the chilling scenes between her and Douglas. She is brilliant in the role, able to play off first the strange psychosis and later, the breakthrough into semi normalcy.

This is a very good movie, but it doesn't offer much that we haven't seen before. It does put an interesting twist on the kidnapping-of-kids movies, but it resembles a little too closely Mel Gibson's Ransom, as various times through the film, you feel almost as if Douglas' character had just watched the previously mentioned film, and was acting with it in mind. I suppose kidnapping films do require some parental heroics, however. It makes it interesting.

Regardless of the lack of originality, Don't Say a Word does offer some new twists on the same old story, and is definitely worth viewing. The thrill factor alone is worth a view.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 8



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Ransom, Trapped, The Game, 8 Mile, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Goldeneye, Lake Placid