(Note: Capsule version of the review is available here.)
Marlee Matlin is a great actress, and it is real pity that we don't see her more often in the movies. Unfortunately, that seems to be case because of her affliction. Being deaf , she has rather limited pool of available roles, but when she gets any of them the audience is rewarded with truly remarkable performances. One of such examples is Hear No Evil, 1993 thriller directed by Richard Greenwald.
In this movie Matlin plays Jillian Shanahan, deaf exercise instructor who, without knowing, got involved in rather dangerous situation. Her friend, journalist Micky O'Malley (played by John C. McGinley) got into the possession of rare, valuable and stolen coin. Before being blown up in his car, Micky had stashed the coin in Jillian's apartment. Jillian is now becoming the target of Lieutenant Brock (played by Martin Sheen), ferocious corrupt cop who sees the coin as his own retirement fund. She is also being stalked by mysterious figure dressed in black. The only help comes in the shape of Ben Kendall (played by D.B. Sweeney), mountain climber that also happens to fall in love with her.
Although not very original in concept and borrowing a lot from Wait Until Dark, 1967 classic with Audrey Hepburn as blind woman in similar situation, Hear No Evil is very good thriller. The crime subplot might seem unoriginal and very formulaic, full of usual Hollywood plot holes and implausibilities. On the other hand, the atmosphere of the film is very well-done, Oregon locations seems refreshing, and sometimes, the horror that waits our heroine can be sensed by the audience too. The best thing in this film is in actors' performances. Marlee Matlin is superb, and she has a good chemistry in the romantic scenes with D.B. Sweeney. Martin Sheen is also good in very reserved, yet menacing role of corrupt policeman. All in all, Hear No Evil is film with weak concept, but the execution so good that deserves praise.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on May 23rd 1999)
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