Don't say a word, 2001

Don't say a word, 2001
Director:Gary Fleder
Cast: Michael Douglas, Sean Bean, Brittany Murphy, Famke Janssen


Don't say a word in short: When the daughter of a psychiatrist is kidnapped, he's horrified to discover that the abductors' demand is that he break through to a post traumatic stress disorder suffering young woman who knows a secret...


Stage: Home TV selection
Preps: None in perticular. The movie catches my eye while lying down after a hard day. It seems familiar, although I cannot verify seeing it yet.


Reality: I am a deep fan of the genre, in its best it fits the needs of my curious soul. The kidnapping of a child and combining it with a psychologist as a father and Douglas's energy seems like a good recipe for victory, from the director's perspective. It doesn't go too deep into revealing the secrets that the kidnapper have, however it maintains a thin red line between the beginning and the end - the precious jewel that the kidnapper wants to take his hands on.

The story inbetween (Douglas chasing his daughter) is just some sort of filling. The real thing lies in the revealing of a secret of a psychotic young woman (brilliantly played by Brittany Murphy) and finally the turnover at the end, when you think that everything is won by the dark side.

The kidnapping part seems much more harder to believe (and the means to getting to the young woman with a secret by Douglas)than the mere idea of getting the stone and not thinking of the means used on the path to get it. The movie is a decent replica of many of the kind (or more accurately, one decent in a line of many decent movies in this topic, like Taken, for instance).

A lot of action, changes of scenery. Some dialogues put very poorly together, the monitoring of the wife of the shrink put to perfection (in this sense, not very believable). A good Saturday evening choice, to my opinion. It will set your feelings on tension until its very end.




My personal rating: 6,5 (a pretty decent psychological drama, just adequate to fit the needs of a good evening. Douglas in his best age and act)



Don't say a word on IMDB

Runaway jury, 2003

Runaway jury, 2003
Director: Gary Fleder
Cast: Dustin Hoffmann, John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Rachel Weisz



Stage: Home selection on TV (indeed surprising, sometimes they can pick)

Preps: Just being home at the right time. Somewhere deep I remembered I loved the movie. The cast is amazing, all the icons I admire, and the woman that grew to my heart in these years that I have watched her. And the case with the jury. Something I wanted to be when being very young. So promising I wanted to watch it again and make some comments.

Reality: Even better than I expected. This time the theme sucks me in, the involvement of a crime in a place where no crime is expected or tolerated, in a sense that noone picks it up until the end of the movie. Cusack is simply brilliant, in the way he puts the minds and develops everyone in the jury with the flow of the movie (or shall I put, the development of the case). The case isn't important, politics is, this is the truth until the last five minutes, when a sudden turnaround happens to the surprise of the viewer.

In my opinion, a piece worth seeing, if not for a superb critic of the american justice system, then for a thorough insight on how you can guide someone's mind or opinion, how you can persuade a bunch of people to take you for what you want them to take, to think how you want them to think and in the end, decide on what you have decided when you first set eyes on them. The justice-representative, attorney, fights a glorious battle, that couldn't be won, except if there wasn't some philosophy and deep revenge down below in the base of the case. For which you don't know, only assume that something is happening and is revealed in the last minute of the movie.

Highly recommended.

My personal rating: 7,5 (a remarkable piece on usually boring attorney/prosecutor cases or movies describing something going on in the court. Can compare it to Erin Brokovich, except this one is mainly happening in the court).



Runaway on IMDB