Hey folks, Harry here. Saw the trailer for this flick of Gary Fleder's and I have to say that the premise interested me. Got me curious. And this review, though by no means a rave, has me interested still more in finding my take on the same material. I tend to like Michael Douglas in his, sweaty distraught no-win scenario flicks where somebody is pulling his strings flicks. Read on...
Hey Harry, I'm here in Norfolk, VA... director Gary Fleder's hometown. He was nice enough to send a print of DON'T SAY A WORD for a local arthouse theater, the Naro Cinema, to show as a free screening on Monday, but I had the luck to see it tonight while they were testing the print. He's what I have to say about it. There are some minor SPOILERS ahead, but this is not really a movie with a big twist ending or any such thing...
Now I'm not big on plot summary, but here is the gist... Dr. Nathan Conrad (Michael Douglas) is a psychiatrist with a bed-ridden wife (Famke Janssen) and adorable daughter. The adorable daughter gets kidnapped. The kidnappers, headed by Patrick Koster (Sean Bean), demand that Nathan draw a six number code out of one of his new patients, Elisabeth Burrows (Brittany Murphy).... Oh, and there is some female detective.... umm, Det. Sandra Cassidy (Jennifer Espisito) who is following close behind on the whole affair. Nordling explains the plot in more detail in his review from a few days ago...
Anyways, this is a film that feels a bit pasted together from other films... the premise is similar to NICK OF TIME, mostly... but is indeed a better film than NICK OF TIME... I mean come on, a movie in real time where you have a dream sequence? That doesn't make any sense!!!
Well, actually there is one major difference between the two films, and this is really what distinguished DON'T SAY A WORD from being a run-of-the-mill action flick, and actually adds a taste of the film-noir element... Michael Douglas' character Nathan Conrad is willing to commit some pretty morally questionable acts in his quest to keep his daughter alive. I was really, really intrigued by how this desperate situation brought out a really dark side of Douglas' character.
SPOILER PARAGRAPH SPOILER PARAGRAPH!!!!
For instance... After the kidnappers contact him, he never considers getting the police involved. He then breaks into his associate office to read up on the patient, Elisabeth. He takes a needle to his associate's neck later. Then stabs a security guard with a hypodermic needle with sedative after the guard refuses to let him sneak Elisabeth out of the institution... then he sneaks Elisabeth out of the institution. He lies to the police, evades the police at all costs. He plays a risky game, often making demands to the kidnappers. He leads Elisabeth to the kidnappers to meet in person. When he fights with the kidnappers, he fights dirty, throwing dirt, going for the jewels, etc... He even seems pretty remorseless about the idea of killing the main bad guy... It's a very interesting direction they took with the protagonist. I don't think Nathan is really that much of a likable character in the end, but I don't know that he's meant to be. Actually, I was kind o! f ! reminded of Anthony Mann's T-MEN, and how those cops become so obsessively dedicated to their jobs, that their own safety and moral codes become secondary to the main objective... Nathan is willing to do just about anything, it seems, to get his daughter back. If this character was placed into NICK OF TIME, Marsha Mason would've been dead, dead, dead.
YOU HAVE PASSED THE SPOILER PARAGRAPH!!!
Okay, moving on... This film also has elements of PRIMAL FEAR, REAR WINDOW and OUT OF SIGHT.
Actually, I only bring up OUT OF SIGHT because of Jennifer Espisito's character, Det. Cassidy. It is a second-rate version of the Jennifer Lopez character in Stephen Soderbergh's film, right down to the outfit. And the biggest problem is, Det. Cassidy serves almost no useful purpose in the film...
Well, there is one thing, this is a minor SPOILER too... In the climax, Det. Cassidy gets the jump on the bad guys right before they are about to kill Nathan. She shoots one of the baddies, leaving only the main baddie, and Nathan gets the gun away from the main baddie... It's a scene I've seen far too often, and Det. Cassidy has been built up far too much for such an abrupt and absurd payoff... Here's how to have done the scene differently... The main baddie has just shot to death one of his two remaining henchmen in cold blood... So, why doesn't the other henchman suddenly realize his life may be in danger? The final henchman pulls a gun on the main baddie... You get the idea... A few minor rewrites, and Espisito would never had needed casting, and the film would be much leaner, or allow more time for character development of the supporting characters.
And yeah, I do wish the supporting characters had been a little more nuanced and interesting. Some movies like WAY OF THE GUN and OUT OF SIGHT manage to create very interesting characters, even the most peripheral character, while still keeping high-paced. I dunno exactly how you do it. I mean, it's just a question of style, I guess... I mean, for instance, look at BOOGIE NIGHTS and look at BLOW. Two very similarly structured stories, but P.T. Anderson's film had a way of creating interesting memorable characters left and right, at least a dozen run through my mind instantly... with BLOW, I can already only vaguely remember certain characters and scenes... I seem to remember Ray Liotta being pretty good.... You see what I'm getting at.... DON'T SAY A WORD creates a really interesting protagonist (actually, you know what, an almost GET CARTER-esqe protagonist, I just thought of that... Michael Caine version, of course) ...but then the other characters surroun! di! ng Michael Douglas' character are mostly forgettable.
So... this flick is pretty good entertainment... Gary Fleder did fine work with this film. Though mind you, he does not write his own scripts, and it's always been my opinion (as a writer) that a film's quality mostly relies on the script. In terms of Gary Fleder's other films, I enjoyed it more than KISS THE GIRLS... But THINGS TO DO IN DENVER... WHEN YOU'RE DEAD remains my favorite film of his... very clever noir, very funny, very touching, and with a boatload of fantastic characters, thanks to a wonderful script by Scott Rosenberg. Gary Fleder's next film is the much-delayed IMPOSTOR (still without a release date, though I heard some rumors that when it is released on DVD, Danny Boyle's short film ALIEN LOVE TRIANGLE will be included), and that too is written by Rosenberg (based on a Philip K Dick story), so I'm hoping for something great out of that.
And that's the last of what I have to say for now... Oh, one more thing, I saw TRAINING DAY too... and that film is absolutely extraordinary! Shame on Warner Brothers for delaying it! I can't remember a better film coming out of that studio since THREE KINGS.
Alright, that's it. I'm TheKeenGuy.
