Don't Say A Word [DVD] [2002]

The opening bank robbery double cross scene of the movie is promising enough but unfortunately it's all downhill from there really. To say that the basic premise of the movie is pretty ridiculous and implausible is to understate. Dr Nathan Conrad an eminent psychiatrist is called in to help a clearly psychotic and uncommunicative patient, Elisabeth Burrows (Brittany Murphy), only to wake the next day to find that his daughter has been kidnapped by, the recently released from a ten year stretch in pokey, Patrick Koster (Sean Bean) and his bad boys. Apparently locked inside Burrows clearly loony head is a six digit code that will reveal the location of a $10 million diamond and in order to get his daughter back Dr Conrad has until 5 pm to retrieve the code. Yeah, like in reality that would be possible!

Don't Say A Word is by no means the worst film you will see this year but unfortunately when push comes to shove it's a thriller that quite frankly fails to thrill. There are so many plot holes so big you could drive a truck through them and all of the characters are so totally underdeveloped that you neither get a feel for them nor do you particularly care about them. Director Gary Fleder seems to be aiming at a David Fincher (Seven, The Game) type dark menace feel for the movie but instead you are just left feeling that you have seen this all somewhere before and done better (i.e., Ransom, Seven etc.). Michael Douglas is an Oscar winning actor, who has given us many excellent performances over the years (in movies such as Traffic, The Game, The Wonder Boys etc.) but even he can't cope with a lousy script. Famke Janssen meanwhile is left with even less to play with in her role as a bedridden housewife with a broken leg, who is still somehow able to deliver a sound beating to a hardened criminal, whilst Sean Bean is suitably menacing and makes a good fist of his bad guy role for most of the movie but inevitably in the end, even he is let down by some awful lines and an implausible plot. Brittany Murphy meanwhile in the showy mentally disturbed young girl role is okay too but ultimately this slick film is an overwhelming disappointment. Take my advice and wait 'til its on Sky!

Unfortunately, I found the story and the pace at which things were happening a bit hard to swallow and somewhat predictable. I also thought a lot of the "thriller" moments were somewhat damaged by some clumsy hint to what is going to happen next. E.g for anyone who's seen formulaic thrillers before, a little kid playing hide and seek is a 90% indicator that those kids will be most likely be disappearing for real later in the movie. Not to be too cyncial but I thought too many "surprises" in the movie were a little bit predictable and as a result quite pointless.

I wouldn't say it's not worth watching but definitely wouldn't consider it worth buying unless it goes on sale or something. Sorry.