Desertman84
Adapted from Andrew Klavan's bestselling suspense novel, Don't Say a Word is a suitable companion to director Gary Fleder's earlier hit Kiss the Girls, with solid performances serving a plot that begins promisingly. This psychological thriller film is based on the novel of the same title by Andrew Klavan. It stars Michael Douglas,Sean Bean and Brittany Murphy.Guy Torry,Jennifer Esposito,Famke Janssen and Oliver Platt co-star to play key supporting roles.Dr. Nathan Conrad is a respected adolescent therapist faced with a nightmarish scenario when his young daughter is snatched by Koster, a criminal with a talent for high-tech surveillance. Conrad learns that the kidnapper is desperate for a critical piece of information known only to Elisabeth Burrows, one of his catatonic pro bono patients. While his wife Aggie remains at home, bedridden due to a broken leg, Conrad races to unlock the secret stored in Elisabeth's fractured mind, while a New York City detective inches closer to discovering the Conrads' dilemma.As an odyssey of paternal qualm, Fleder's forgettable thriller has a convincing edge, and Douglas remains unchallenged as Hollywood's most tremulous and disquieting dad-under-pressure.As generic as the title suggests, this routine psychological thriller about a yuppie shrink whose daughter is kidnapped can't be saved by the talented cast for it is merely a routine and it stretches believability with many eye rolling moments.
lancecherubin
Despite what others say about the ridiculous plot, I liked this movie. Michael Douglas did a fantastic job as a passionate father willing to do anything to preserve the life of his daughter. His wife however (Famke Jansenn) really kicks some serious butt, for a lady on crutches. She's very intuitive and although being confined to a bed for most of the movie, she still manages to play an integral role. The main villain Patrick, didn't sound the part with his rather refined English accent, but he certainly played the part well through his manipulation of the Conrad family.Brittany Murphy did a stellar job in her role as a neurotic young lady who holds the key to the mystery of the movie, a numbered code. Finally, Jennifer Esposito, surprised me in that she's dropped dead gorgeous, but she proved to be as tough as nails and persistent in trying to find the connections between a number of unsolved deaths. At the end she takes a bullet for a worthy cause and is the x-factor hero, so to speak, of the entire film. Generally, the movie presents a nice mix of suspense and action to keep most thriller fans interested. It won't blow you out of your seat, but at least it will keep you thinking.
zardoz-13
Don't Say A Word" qualifies as utter hokum but good fun. This stylishly-lensed, white-knuckled suspense thriller asks us to put up with a plot so contrived that it literally defies credibility. Basically, a gang of relentless jewel thieves abduct Jessie (Skye McCole Bartusiask) the 8-year old daughter of an affluent Manhattan psychiatrist, Dr. Nathan Conrad (Michael Douglas of "Traffic"), and holds her for ransom. The gang doesn't demand money. Instead, these calculating, cold-blooded, ex-convicts want our resourceful hero to ferret out a secret mired in the mind of an apparently catatonic, 18-year old damsel-in-distress, Elisabeth Burrows (Brittany Murphy of "Summer Catch"), prone to bouts of extreme violence. Our antagonists need a six-digit number, so they can locate a ruby worth $10-million. Elisabeth's felonious father abetted bad guy Patrick Koster (Sean Bean of "GoldenEye") and his crew when they stole the gemstone ten years ago. During the getaway, Elisabeth's dad double-crossed them, stashed the ruby, and fled. When they caught up with him, he refused to divulge where he had the ruby, so they killed him, but were caught and imprisoned. Now, they are back on the streets again and after Elisabeth.Were this chain of events not improbable enough, remember these villains have just finished a ten-year stretch in New York's notorious Attica Prison, and they still want that damned stone! The premise of "Don't Say A Word" partially mimics the recent Martin Lawrence comedy "Blue Streak," except Lawrence emerged as the hero, whereas Sean Bean and his ruffians are indisputably the bad guys. Originally, N.Y. Transit authorities arrested Koster and company for knocking off Elisabeth's dad in a crowded subway station while she witnessed his murder. Vividly ingrained in her mind is the memory that nobody tried to help her dad. Now, the only remaining lead these desperate hoodlums have to the whereabouts of the ruby is Elisabeth herself. Cleverly, she has managed to hole up in a variety of mental facilities over the intervening decade and eluded them. How can somebody with no medical expertise whatsoever dupe experts and stay in at least 20 institutions? "Don't Say A Word" never satisfactorily resolves this question. Nevertheless, Dr. Conrad catches her faking right off the bat. Deciding to come clean, Elisabeth warbles a tune like a mythical Greek siren trying to lure a sailor to his death on a rocky seashore: "I'll never tell." She knows more is at stake than her implied mental instability and suspects Dr. Conrad knows about her secret, too.Incredibly, our heroic psychologist finds himself up against a wall with a nerve-racking, eight-hour deadline to pry the valuable secret out of a reluctant Elisabeth before the villains kill his daughter. The outlandish but adrenalin-laced Anthony Peckham & Patrick Smith Kelly screenplay borrows elements from the Bogart classic "The Maltese Falcon," the Martin Lawrence comedy "Blue Streak," and the graveyard scene in Sergio Leone's "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly." Sadly, the writers don't do a seamless job of integrating different story lines, so a police investigation subplot appears added as an afterthought. Finally, our villains behave like larcenous Boy Scouts. They come up with every available audio and video surveillance device to make Big Brother salivate, and they install them wherever our heroes might conduct business. Like all encompassing evil, these fiends strive to be as omniscient as possible. They wire Dr. Conrad's luxurious apartment house and the grim mental institution where Elisabeth is held. The writers neglect to tell how these guys obtained their sophisticated equipment. Did they steal it? Or how they could gain access to an apartment complex with security guards? "Don't Say A Word" unfolds with a flashback set in 1991. Koster and his team of high-tech thieves break into a safe-deposit box at a posh New York bank and pocket a priceless ruby. At least, Patrick thought he had it, only to discover moments afterward that his slippery-fingered accomplice has pulled the old switcheroo on him. Eventually, they catch him in the subway, and Elisabeth's dad dies when they force him in front of an on-coming subway train. Later, after they get out of Attica, Koster and his cohorts track Elisabeth down in a mental asylum run by Dr. Louis Sachs (Oliver Platt of "Bicentennial Man"), one of Nathan's oldest and closest friends. Sachs accuses Nathan of selling out and moving up-town to earn the big bucks. Our wily villains strong-arm Sachs, and he browbeats the unsuspecting Nathan into accepting the poor girl's case pro bono on Thanksgiving Eve. Nathan's last minute favor for Louis ticks off his wife Aggie (Famke Janssen of "X-Men"); she is confined to a bed with her broken leg in a plaster cast. We learn Aggie broke her leg during an off-screen skiing accident. However, Aggie's infirmity doesn't prevent the agile Janssen from getting into trouble later on in the action. Aggie's no-holds-barred battle with one of Patrick's nastier henchmen is simply terrific! I'm not overly fond of kidnap capers involving small children. My chief complaint about "Don't Say A Word" is the little girl. First, we know nothing deadly can occur to her, because she looks far too cute and adorable. Second, you know her brave dad will save her, because "Don't Say A Word" is strictly a popcorn movie. Third, Hollywood doesn't make movies that show adults torturing children. As a result, this inherent lack of drama undercuts the suspense. Now, teenagers are an entirely different story. The villains can rough them up, but they aren't about to muss a little girl's hair. Only when the kidnap caper is a comedy along the lines of O'Henry's "The Ransom of Red Chief," where the child creates more chaos than the adults can endure, do I like them.Ultimately, "Don't Say A Word" doesn't surpass director Gary Fleder's audaciously subversive debut thriller "Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead" (1995). Altogether, what "Don't Say A Word" lacks in authenticity, Fleder more than makes up for with gripping, edge-of-the-seat anxiety.
