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Don't Say A Word
Fox // R // February 19, 2002
List Price: $27.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
Attempting to analyze director Gary Fleder's "Don't Say A Word" is an alternately frustrating and promising experience - unfortunately leaning more towards the former. This is an Arnold and Anne Kopelson production; as the Bruckheimer productions are generally known for their rich, often warm and occasionally somewhat heavy lighting, many of the films that the Kopelsons have produced ("Fugitive", "Perfect Murder"), whatever director is at the helm, seem to have a look of their own: cold, crisp, sharp; a sort of harsher reality. Yet, while these films have been cool visually, at least story elements and characters draw the viewer in. Unfortunately, I felt "Don't Say A Word" was cold not only visually, but emotionally; many of the characters are not well-developed and some are almost completely unnecessary. As a result, what could have been a good, if standard, thriller often trips up on its own dangling plot threads.
Michael Douglas (who also was the lead in the Kopelson's previous production, "A Perfect Murder") stars as Nathan Conrad, a successful Manhattan psychologist who has a young daughter and a wife (Famke Janssen) who has recently injured her leg in an accident. He's called in one night by a fellow doctor (Oliver Platt) to analyze a seriously disturbed young girl named Elisabeth Burrows (Brittany Murphy), who will be sent to one of the state's worst facilities unless someone can bring her out of her current state.
The next morning, a group of bad guys, lead by Patrick Koster (Sean Bean) have taken his daughter. They don't want money - they want information that's in Elisabeth's memory that's more valuable to them. So, Nathan sets out to rescue his daughter. Meanwhile, of course, the bad guys have somehow set up incredible monitoring equipment overnight, so Nathan can't alert the police or anyone else.
At this point, things seem as if they might go somewhere. But, director Fleder and writer Patrick Smith Kelly haven't seemed to work out all the details. Only the Douglas character seems to be even somewhat well-developed. Most of the other roles are mainly one-dimenional and rather thankless (which director Fleder occasionally seems to admit on the commentary), livened slightly by what the actors have tried to bring to the screen. Several plot threads (such as an investigation of a similar case by another detective, played by Jennifer Esposito) are either dull, insufficently developed or altogether unncessary. Some of the film's scenes, such as one early on in Douglas' office, really didn't seem to have much of a point and, as a result, just sit there on-screen.
The film is not entirely assisted technically, either. While I enjoyed Amir Mokri's vibrant cinematography for "Coyote Ugly", "Don't Say A Word" contains too many stylistic touches that I didn't feel were needed; the filmmakers need to pick a style and stick with it, although I suppose flashbacks are acceptable to vary things up. I don't think I can remember a score by Mark Isham that I felt was really noteworthy, but I didn't feel this one brought anything to the table. With the story/character problems, the cold visuals and little tension from the score, the film starts to desperately need a boost of energy. Towards the end, the film attempts to build up intensity, but the cutting between events simply has an opposite effect, further taking what tension the film had built up out of it.
The performances are generally fine, although every one of the actors has given finer efforts elsewhere, in service of better roles. Douglas has played this character time and time again; he brings the intensity, but not often enough. While the film's promotion was geared towards showing a darker performance from the previously sunny Brittany Murphy, her genuinely solid effort really doesn't ever add up to much, given the fact that there's little to the character in the first place. Famke Janssen and Oliver Platt do what they can with rather thankless roles.
In the end, "Don't Say A Word" is simply a very average thriller, waisting a fair amount of potential and a very solid cast. While I can accept suspending disbelief for a thriller like this one, "Don't Say A Word" simply asks too much; there's too many plot holes and not enough character development. Maybe a different director could have made more of this or maybe not; I can't help but feel that I've seen this all before in different films.
The DVD
VIDEO: 20th Century Fox presents "Don't Say A Word" in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. The picture quality is about as good as one might expect from one of the studio's new releases. Sharpness and detail are usually quite solid, whether during the daylight scenes or murky/low-lit ones.
If there is a noticable problem with the presentation, it's that there are a few scenes during the film that do show some noticable, if still rather mild, edge enhancement. Other that that slight irritation, the picture appeared free of other flaws; pixelation was absent and, as one should expect from a pretty new feature, the print was free of flaws. Colors are intentionally subdued throughout the picture, but seem accurate to the filmmaker's intentions. Overall, a very nice presentation.
SOUND: "Don't Say A Word" is presented in both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 on this edition from 20th Century Fox. The film's sound designer is Wylie Stateman, whose work on such films as "Godzilla", "Perfect Storm" and several of Oliver Stone's films is highly regarded. "Don't Say A Word" does provide a fairly agressive, if not overdone, sound experience. Surrounds came in to provide a solid amount of ambient detail and additional, more distinct sound effects. The track is quite rich sounding across-the-board, as the score, while not particularly engaging, sounded crisp, while sound effects and dialogue also came through clearly. There's also some solid, deep bass at times. Overall, it's not a presentation that will become demo material, but it's more than I expected. In terms of DTS versus the Dolby Digital track, I do applaud Fox for including the option of DTS on many titles. But, in this case, I really didn't find any differences between the two tracks.
MENUS: A striking animated menu that's quite nicely done, vividly using dark, film-themed images.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from Director Gary Fleder, who contributes a track that's actually fairly interesting for the majority. He doesn't distinctly state as such, but there's several instances where I got the feeling as if things didn't work out exactly the way that he wanted them to regarding the final product. While occasionally stopping to praise his stars and discuss what's going on in the story, he doesn't do this enough to cause the commentary to drag. For the majority, he provides a solid amount of details about the day-to-day production of the film, working with the actors, as well as some technical information about the making of specific sequences. Aside from a few areas of "happy talk", I think the track is worthy of a listen.
Commentary: The back of the case states that this is a screen-specific commentary from Michael Douglas, Brittany Murphy, Oliver Platt, Famke Janssen and Sean Bean. This means that the actors discuss their thoughts over one or two specific scenes, but this is not a full-length commentary track. The participants are able to be selected to hear from by selecting their name from a menu. Douglas gets sidetracked talking about praise for Fleder, but does provide some insights about the production and behind-the-scenes DVD supplements. Murphy is the most interesting, as she provides some fun and insightful comments about how she approaches a scene. With an actress who seems so giggly and sweet (she even giggles throughout her comments, even during dramatic scenes), it's hard to believe that she could have done such a dark character. With her performance here and with her even-better performance in Ed Burns' "Sidewalks Of New York", I really look forward to what she'll do next.
Cinema Master Class: While it's a bit hard to buy a section called "Cinema Master Class" when that label is associated with a thriller like "Don't Say A Word", I shall move on and discuss what this area offers:
Producing with the Kopelsons: I have a lot of respect for the Kopelsons as producers - judging by their track record, they are very good at what they do. While their basic discussions in this featurette about the tasks of what producers do is interesting, they don't really offer any insight about the picture and provide some rather basic comments about how pleased they are with the result.
Also: Also in "pre-production" are storyboard-to-scene comparisons for two sequences and a more interesting extra: Brittany Murphy's impressive screen test.
Production: This section offers "You Are There"; three fairly interesting featurettes that take us on-location at three of the film's main locations; "Screening Room Dailies", where nine takes and the final scene of Janssen's fight are shown as well as a set tour with production designer Nelson Coates. The Coates tour is fairly interesting, as he's done fine work on this film. The dailies are interesting to view basically, but there's a lot of options that could have been done to view these in a more interesting format or even edit them.
Post-Production: The last section ends the "class" with a conversation with the director, a section on "thriller themes" (more Fleder interviews) and a pre-visualization of a sequence (although the "pre-vis" section gives away a pretty big scene, so I wouldn't watch it before the movie).
Also: Three deleted scenes (no additional commentary), "Making Of" featurette, bios and a trailer for Douglas's "Wall Street".
Final Thoughts: "Don't Say A Word" is a film that has some moments and a couple of performances that are fairly good from Murphy and Douglas, but the film itself is a downer and too familiar, offering chararacters that are underdeveloped and events that are not believable. Fox's DVD offers solid audio/video quality along with a wealth of supplements. Still, I would only recommend this film as a rental.
Attempting to analyze director Gary Fleder's "Don't Say A Word" is an alternately frustrating and promising experience - unfortunately leaning more towards the former. This is an Arnold and Anne Kopelson production; as the Bruckheimer productions are generally known for their rich, often warm and occasionally somewhat heavy lighting, many of the films that the Kopelsons have produced ("Fugitive", "Perfect Murder"), whatever director is at the helm, seem to have a look of their own: cold, crisp, sharp; a sort of harsher reality. Yet, while these films have been cool visually, at least story elements and characters draw the viewer in. Unfortunately, I felt "Don't Say A Word" was cold not only visually, but emotionally; many of the characters are not well-developed and some are almost completely unnecessary. As a result, what could have been a good, if standard, thriller often trips up on its own dangling plot threads.
Michael Douglas (who also was the lead in the Kopelson's previous production, "A Perfect Murder") stars as Nathan Conrad, a successful Manhattan psychologist who has a young daughter and a wife (Famke Janssen) who has recently injured her leg in an accident. He's called in one night by a fellow doctor (Oliver Platt) to analyze a seriously disturbed young girl named Elisabeth Burrows (Brittany Murphy), who will be sent to one of the state's worst facilities unless someone can bring her out of her current state.
The next morning, a group of bad guys, lead by Patrick Koster (Sean Bean) have taken his daughter. They don't want money - they want information that's in Elisabeth's memory that's more valuable to them. So, Nathan sets out to rescue his daughter. Meanwhile, of course, the bad guys have somehow set up incredible monitoring equipment overnight, so Nathan can't alert the police or anyone else.
At this point, things seem as if they might go somewhere. But, director Fleder and writer Patrick Smith Kelly haven't seemed to work out all the details. Only the Douglas character seems to be even somewhat well-developed. Most of the other roles are mainly one-dimenional and rather thankless (which director Fleder occasionally seems to admit on the commentary), livened slightly by what the actors have tried to bring to the screen. Several plot threads (such as an investigation of a similar case by another detective, played by Jennifer Esposito) are either dull, insufficently developed or altogether unncessary. Some of the film's scenes, such as one early on in Douglas' office, really didn't seem to have much of a point and, as a result, just sit there on-screen.
The film is not entirely assisted technically, either. While I enjoyed Amir Mokri's vibrant cinematography for "Coyote Ugly", "Don't Say A Word" contains too many stylistic touches that I didn't feel were needed; the filmmakers need to pick a style and stick with it, although I suppose flashbacks are acceptable to vary things up. I don't think I can remember a score by Mark Isham that I felt was really noteworthy, but I didn't feel this one brought anything to the table. With the story/character problems, the cold visuals and little tension from the score, the film starts to desperately need a boost of energy. Towards the end, the film attempts to build up intensity, but the cutting between events simply has an opposite effect, further taking what tension the film had built up out of it.
The performances are generally fine, although every one of the actors has given finer efforts elsewhere, in service of better roles. Douglas has played this character time and time again; he brings the intensity, but not often enough. While the film's promotion was geared towards showing a darker performance from the previously sunny Brittany Murphy, her genuinely solid effort really doesn't ever add up to much, given the fact that there's little to the character in the first place. Famke Janssen and Oliver Platt do what they can with rather thankless roles.
In the end, "Don't Say A Word" is simply a very average thriller, waisting a fair amount of potential and a very solid cast. While I can accept suspending disbelief for a thriller like this one, "Don't Say A Word" simply asks too much; there's too many plot holes and not enough character development. Maybe a different director could have made more of this or maybe not; I can't help but feel that I've seen this all before in different films.
The DVD
VIDEO: 20th Century Fox presents "Don't Say A Word" in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. The picture quality is about as good as one might expect from one of the studio's new releases. Sharpness and detail are usually quite solid, whether during the daylight scenes or murky/low-lit ones.
If there is a noticable problem with the presentation, it's that there are a few scenes during the film that do show some noticable, if still rather mild, edge enhancement. Other that that slight irritation, the picture appeared free of other flaws; pixelation was absent and, as one should expect from a pretty new feature, the print was free of flaws. Colors are intentionally subdued throughout the picture, but seem accurate to the filmmaker's intentions. Overall, a very nice presentation.
SOUND: "Don't Say A Word" is presented in both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 on this edition from 20th Century Fox. The film's sound designer is Wylie Stateman, whose work on such films as "Godzilla", "Perfect Storm" and several of Oliver Stone's films is highly regarded. "Don't Say A Word" does provide a fairly agressive, if not overdone, sound experience. Surrounds came in to provide a solid amount of ambient detail and additional, more distinct sound effects. The track is quite rich sounding across-the-board, as the score, while not particularly engaging, sounded crisp, while sound effects and dialogue also came through clearly. There's also some solid, deep bass at times. Overall, it's not a presentation that will become demo material, but it's more than I expected. In terms of DTS versus the Dolby Digital track, I do applaud Fox for including the option of DTS on many titles. But, in this case, I really didn't find any differences between the two tracks.
MENUS: A striking animated menu that's quite nicely done, vividly using dark, film-themed images.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from Director Gary Fleder, who contributes a track that's actually fairly interesting for the majority. He doesn't distinctly state as such, but there's several instances where I got the feeling as if things didn't work out exactly the way that he wanted them to regarding the final product. While occasionally stopping to praise his stars and discuss what's going on in the story, he doesn't do this enough to cause the commentary to drag. For the majority, he provides a solid amount of details about the day-to-day production of the film, working with the actors, as well as some technical information about the making of specific sequences. Aside from a few areas of "happy talk", I think the track is worthy of a listen.
Commentary: The back of the case states that this is a screen-specific commentary from Michael Douglas, Brittany Murphy, Oliver Platt, Famke Janssen and Sean Bean. This means that the actors discuss their thoughts over one or two specific scenes, but this is not a full-length commentary track. The participants are able to be selected to hear from by selecting their name from a menu. Douglas gets sidetracked talking about praise for Fleder, but does provide some insights about the production and behind-the-scenes DVD supplements. Murphy is the most interesting, as she provides some fun and insightful comments about how she approaches a scene. With an actress who seems so giggly and sweet (she even giggles throughout her comments, even during dramatic scenes), it's hard to believe that she could have done such a dark character. With her performance here and with her even-better performance in Ed Burns' "Sidewalks Of New York", I really look forward to what she'll do next.
Cinema Master Class: While it's a bit hard to buy a section called "Cinema Master Class" when that label is associated with a thriller like "Don't Say A Word", I shall move on and discuss what this area offers:
Producing with the Kopelsons: I have a lot of respect for the Kopelsons as producers - judging by their track record, they are very good at what they do. While their basic discussions in this featurette about the tasks of what producers do is interesting, they don't really offer any insight about the picture and provide some rather basic comments about how pleased they are with the result.
Also: Also in "pre-production" are storyboard-to-scene comparisons for two sequences and a more interesting extra: Brittany Murphy's impressive screen test.
Production: This section offers "You Are There"; three fairly interesting featurettes that take us on-location at three of the film's main locations; "Screening Room Dailies", where nine takes and the final scene of Janssen's fight are shown as well as a set tour with production designer Nelson Coates. The Coates tour is fairly interesting, as he's done fine work on this film. The dailies are interesting to view basically, but there's a lot of options that could have been done to view these in a more interesting format or even edit them.
Post-Production: The last section ends the "class" with a conversation with the director, a section on "thriller themes" (more Fleder interviews) and a pre-visualization of a sequence (although the "pre-vis" section gives away a pretty big scene, so I wouldn't watch it before the movie).
Also: Three deleted scenes (no additional commentary), "Making Of" featurette, bios and a trailer for Douglas's "Wall Street".
Final Thoughts: "Don't Say A Word" is a film that has some moments and a couple of performances that are fairly good from Murphy and Douglas, but the film itself is a downer and too familiar, offering chararacters that are underdeveloped and events that are not believable. Fox's DVD offers solid audio/video quality along with a wealth of supplements. Still, I would only recommend this film as a rental.
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