Year:
2000
Studio:
Dreamworks SKG/Image Movers
Movie:
5/5
DVD:
3/5
There are several reasons why I love What
Lies Beneath. I tend to shy away from scary movies because I
scare easily. But this movie scared me more than any other movie I can
remember other than Poltergeist
and I was ten when I saw that movie. Heck, it even scared Dave.
And it does it without killing people and leaving bloody corpses and
parts of bodies around. It does it solely by suspense, by suggestion,
by sound and great acting. And what great actors we have here. Harrison
Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer are two great veteran actors. Pfeiffer is
one of my favorite actresses. Both actors have to convey a lot of
things solely through emoting and their actions. And they pull it off
flawlessly.
What Lies Beneath
is the story of Norman and Claire Spencer (Ford and Pfeiffer). Norman
is a research biologist at a nearby university. Claire used to be an
accomplished bass player but retired for motherhood. They live in a big
house on a remote island with no cell phone coverage, with only one
neighbor.
After their only daughter leaves for college, Claire starts
experiencing things. Things move around, weird sounds, strange
feelings. All very subtle at first. She also meets the new neighbors,
Mary and Warren Feur (Miranda Otto and James Remar) who seem to be
having domextic troubles.
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Mary
disappears. Claire suspects Warren. Mary's spirit seems to be trying to
contact Claire. Norman things Claire is going crazy. Things slowly
start to reveal themselves. One of the key plot elements is that Claire
had a near-fatal car accident almost a year ago. Apparently she's
forgotten some things and her mind is trying to resurface those
memories.
But are the strange messages her own hallucinations, or is there really
a spirit in the house? Even Norman starts being convinced of the
spirit. And then the last third of the movie goes into high gear and
secrets start coming out and we find out that everything is different
than what we could possibly have imagined. But really, we should have
suspected it.
Watching it again and then with the commentary, you see all these
little touches and clues and things that have a different meaning when
you know what is really going on. That's a sign of a well put-together
film.
Robert Zemeckis and a couple of the producers provide the commentary
track. They really get into the movie and provide useful information
and trivia. The DVD also includes a 15-minute "Constructing a Thriller"
segment that is mostly about Zemeckis more than the film itself.
Nothing else interesting on the DVD.
What Lies Beneath
is an edge-of-the-seat thriller that is also subtle and stylistic. It
features two great veteran actors who get to do a lot of actual acting.
It's a good, tight, story that slowly reveals itself and comes to a
satisfying climax. Overall, a highly recommended movie. I give it four
stars for the movie, a bonus star for Pfeiffer in a great role, another
one for Ford, subtract a star because it's scary.
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