Robert Zemeckis is one of the greatest Hollywood film makers of his generation, but he had misfortune of having some of his greatest triumphs achieved under the wing of Steven Spielberg. As a result, he is often unfavourably compared to his mentor and some critics even considered him a mere craftsman, unable to produce anything better than “light” Spielbergian entertainment. This continued even after his “Oscar” triumph with Forrest Gump, so Zemeckis felt the need to prove critics wrong by trying something different. One of those experiments was 2000 thriller What Lies Beneath.
The protagonist is Claire Spencer (played by Michelle Pfeiffer), former cellist who is married to Dr. Norman Spencer (played by Harrison Ford), a scientist. After two decades of good marriage and sending their daughter Caitlin (played by Katharine Towne) to college, Spencers should enjoy quiet life in luxurious lakeside house in Vermont. But things aren’t as idyllic as Claire previously imagined. Norman, frustrated with comparisons with his more renowned scientist father, spends increasing amounts of time at the research lab. That makes Claire almost always alone and, out of boredom, she begins to spy on their neighbours – Warren (played by James Remar) and his wife Mary Feur (played by Miranda Otto) – whose marriage seems to be burdened with constant fights and possible violence. Soon afterwards she begins to notice strange events in her own home – doors become to close by themselves, objects fall down and Claire soon begins to experience visions of drowned woman. As it happens, Mary disappears so Claire concludes that she was murdered by her husband and tries to contact Claire as a ghost. Norman is, however, quite sceptical towards such idea and thinks of it as an effect of an accident Claire recently had. Claire tries to work out the issue by visiting psychologist Dr. Drayton (played by Joe Morton), but this is just the beginning of the series of frightening events.
Zemeckis is known for technical innovations in late 20th Century Hollywood and his ability to deliver film magic is evident even in this film, which isn’t the most suitable for representing the latest achievements in special effects. He has gathered experienced team of collaborators, including composer Alan Silvestri, so What Lies Beneath at first glance looks and sounds like great film. Michelle Pfeiffer was well-cast and, despite her age, still looks stunning and delivers very good acting performance. Zemeckis, on the other hand, wasn’t that fortunate in choosing the proper script. His attempt to make old school Hitchcockian thriller was based on the work of Clark Gregg, which represents one of the least intelligent scripts of its time. Instead of paying the proper homage to Master of Suspense, Gregg has mechanically collected all Hitchockian cliches and, to make things even worse, tried to outdo the surprise twist of The Sixth Sense with something similar, adding “supernatural” flavour that is actually quite un-Hitchockian. The “surprise twist” doesn’t come near the end, but around half of film. What began as one kind of film ends as another, and this only changes the nature of cliches, which are now based on 1980s teen slasher films and cheap 1990s thrillers than something that could be appreciated by admirers of Hitchcock. Despite some scenes being well-made, especially the one in which protagonist fights for her life in bathtub, film looks predictable. But the worst disappointment is Harrison Ford, who apparently didn’t have much enthusiasm for the role and delivered one of the worst performance of his career. Although fans of Michelle Pfeiffer would have less reasons to complain, even they might find that more than two hours spend watching What Lies Beneath isn’t sacrifice that they should make.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
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