'Don't Say a Word' lacks
originality, engaging
plot
By Sarah Szczepanski
Assistant
Features Editor
A more fitting title for the movie, "Don’t
Say a Word" would be "Don’t Waste Your Money."
The movie is not original — it is a cheap
imitation of "Ransom" or any of the other child-kidnapping movies and
the plot has holes in it.
"Don’t Say a Word" is about an affluent child
psychologist (Michael Douglas) who takes on a case of Elisabeth (Brittany
Murphy), a disturbed teen who has not reacted positively to any sort
of treatment for years.
The next day, Patrick Coster (Sean Bean) kidnaps
Douglas' daughter.
Bean demands that Douglas give him a series of
numbers that Murphy has locked in her brain.
So far, the plot doesn’t sound too bad. The
dynamics of clinical psychology are a mystery to many, and most of the
scenes up to this point are tolerable and even engaging.
Then the rest of the movie happens.
The story turns in a bunch of pointless directions
after Douglas immediately, magically and quite unbelievably diagnoses
Murphy as an expert imitator.
He then convinces the ever-sane Murphy to give
him the number, while continuing on a quest to thwart the kidnappers
— surprise, surprise.
A NYPD cop (Jennifer Esposito) comes in and somehow
gets involved with the case, turning up every once in awhile just to
remind the audience that she was ever in the movie in the first place.
The fact that her cliché character keeps coming up just clutters
the story. Esposito could've been cut and it would've helped keep the
focus on what was most interesting on the story — the psychology.
The human brain is the most mysterious organ in
the body, and when it begins functioning differently, people are interested,
for better or for worse. That's what made the previews for "Don’t
Say a Word" look so interesting.
But even this falls through. The movie should've
developed more of Murphy's imitations, which, besides filling a gaping
hole in the plot, would've changed the movie from an average kidnapping
story, to a story about psychology.
This would've in turn separated "Don’t Say
a Word" and made it more interesting. But, the moviemakers sold out
for an action-packed waste of time and money.
So, do yourself a favor — believe that the
best of the movie is on the 30-second preview, and don’t waste
$7.50.
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