The following test screening review comes from Hush, a spy somewhere on Planet E. A strange world where people are named by the word most used in reference to them. Hush has always been a talkative fellow, and now... well now Hush talks to me, though those around him continue to tell him, "hush!" Tis only happenstance that Hush's first spy mission is for the film HUSH, but be assured... it won't be Hush's last. There are spoilers in regards to this film, and as always this is just one person's opinion, not necessarily yours. Your opinion should be formed by you watching the film. Then and only then can you agree or disagree. But enough gibber jabber, here's Hush's HUSH review....
As far as HUSH, the film is concerned, I really looked forward to the screening. Who wouldn't with a cast as renowned as Jessica Lange (of which I'm a great fan), Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jonathan Schaech (not for his acting abilities). Well, it all started off rather well - Gwyneth (the girlfriend) and Jonathan (the son) playing a very happy couple (living together in a stunning apartment in New York). They visit Mommie Dearest, Jessica Lange, on her horse breeding farm (which we find out later in the film actually belongs to her son. He inherited it from his father who died when he was a boy. He fell down a staircase after Jonathan ran into him by accident). Here we are introduced to the family and friends in various scenes, including a New Years bash, which also gives Jessica the opportunity to wear some great outfits. We slowly realise that Mother is a bit too interested in the girlfriend's business, being slightly overbearing and possessive. There's a scene in which she perversely watches the happy couple make love in the living room. She also fixes Gwyneth's broken locket with the photograph of her parents who died when she was young.
(This is after an opening sequence which made me think that I was watching Face/Off 2, complete with a merry-go-round and pretty music although it didn't feature John Travolta)
Back in NY, we see Gwyneth spilling her breakfast on someone in a boardroom. Guess what, she's pregnant! As if we couldn't predict this will happen. Jonathan decides to marry her and the next minute whe're back at the farm at the wedding. (more stunning outfits) Here we meet the wheelchair bound paternal grandmother, who invited herself to the wedding, who also introduces herself to Gwyneth and warns her about Jessica. Jessica sees them together says a few nasty things to grandma and walks off. Is grandma a crackpot?
The couple go back to NY, Gwyneth is attacked by a masked wacko who cuts her stomach and steals her locket. Fortunatley she doesn't lose the baby. When they return to the apartment, Jessica gives them a great scare when she pops out of the kitchen. We learn that the farm has debts and that she will have to sell and wants Jonathan's permission. After contemplation Gwyneth suggests that they move to the farm and try to save it.
This is where things go wrong for the couple. Jessica convinces J not to sleep with G anymore in case it hurts the baby. She tells the doctor that G wants to give natural birth at home. She orders G not to speak to Grandma. Grandma in the meantime tells G that J fathers' death wasn't an accident and that his spine was crushed when he fell on a sharp intstrument at the botom of the stairs. Who must we believe, is grandma cuckoo and Jessica just a concerned mother-in-law. Grandma also gets into trouble when Jessica visits her at the old age home and almost gets killed.
Gwyneth convinces her husband that they should go back to NY and that it would be the best thing for their relationship. First, he has to go away for a few days though during which Gwyneth would do the packing. Obviously Mother is pissed as hell.
Up to this moment, I must admit the tension is handled quite well and everything SEEMS to build up to an inevitable climax. We know Jessica is the bad seed, although they try to mislead us. The look and the feel of the film up to here is reminiscent of THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE It is what we are expect from the film. We expect a showdown between the two women, after all that's why we'd want to see the film and what we were led to expect from the original promos that were screened.
Back to the story. Jonathan leaves to take care of some business. Mother bakes a wonderful cake in which she has put medicine that induces labour in horses. She gets G to eat a slice. G wonders around the farm while she is feeling sick and discovers a nursery in the barn. She also discovers her missing locket in a drawer. She races away in a 4x4, but eventually Jessica catches up to her next to the roadside where she tries to hitch a lift. She is put in bed where she goes into labour. Jessica cuts the umbilical cord, without binding it and leaves G to bleed to death. Jonathan in the meantime phones home, isn't allowed to speak to his wife and races back home, during which he successfully manages to make a three hour trip in a few minutes.
Apparently G is not bleeding to death fast enough and Jessica wants to inject her with morphine, but only manages to inject a little bit because Jonathan arrives home. She keeps him away from his wife who is tucked -up in bed bleeding to death. When she enters G's room to finish the job, Jonathan is there. Frustrated she has to leave. G wakes up the next morning and asks her husband to go down to his mom and ask her to make them breakfast before they leave. She obviously has time to shower, clean up all the blood she has lost, beacuse in the next scene we see G entering the kitchen holding something behind her back (the instrument which she went to fetch in the barn - yes she's a strong woman - that crushed the father's spine). Here she confronts Jessica, tells Jonathan that he didn't kill his father, that it was actually his mother. She accuses G of lying and breaks down crying. Jonathan believes everything his wife has said and the couple leaves with Jessica in a state of madness in the kitchen. Now there's going to be trouble!
Oh, sorry, apparently not. The couple go to Grandma to show her the baby and the movie ends. Mother has obviously in the meantime accepted everything. She no longer cares because we never see her again. She doesn't try to stop them or kill Grandma. Maybe she is plotting to do this in the sequel where we will finally get to see her and Gwyneth fight it out.
I hope it all makes sense, there is not much to recommend except a scene where Jessica takes off Jonathan's shirt and washes his muddy body off with a hose. (Of couse this is a central moment to the plot!) Oh yes and the outfits and the apartment in NY.
As far as the acting, Schaech does what he does best - look stunning, smile and show his muscles; Gwyneth well, maybe the name of her character is Emma or was that one of her previous characters?; Jessica, she does what is expected of her - play an obviously disturbed woman with no opportunity to show her madness, all of which obviously landed on the cutting room floor.
Well, that's it from me for the moment. Agent Hush will return.
