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All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
What Lies Beneath
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 out of 4
 Review by Susan Granger 2½ stars out of 4
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The greatest mystery in this psychological thriller is why the
trailer gives away so many of the carefully designed plot twists and
turns. After all, isn't a suspense story supposed to be full of
surprises? That having been said, compliments are due to director
Robert Zemeckis ("Forrest Gump") who uses technology to enhance his
craftsmanship, rather than substitute for it; to Harrison Ford who has
the courage and conviction to play a believably flawed, obsessed hero;
and to Michelle Pfeiffer who manages to be wet and wild at the same
time. They're a supposedly happily married couple - he's a respected
geneticist and she was a concert cellist - who live in a beautiful
house on a lake in bucolic Vermont next to some provocative
neighbors. She has a daughter (Katharine Towne) from a previous
marriage whom they've just packed off to college when she hears
mysterious, whispering voices and spies a wraithlike ghost in their
home. Is it a poltergeist or her repressed anxieties? "Something is
happening in our house," she wails, oozing paranoia and
vulnerability. Indeed it is. It seems her husband had an affair with a
suicidal woman that may have come back to haunt him. But why? And
what lies beneath? Obviously influenced by Alfred Hitchcock's penchant
for scary elements that emerge credibly, Robert Zemeckis adds
complicated camera moves and a unique ability as an illusionist, which
he uses to full advantage during the final half-hour. While Harrison
Ford conveys his usual stalwart strength which, in this case, has
creepy overtones, it's Michelle Pfeiffer who carries Clark Gregg's
somewhat predictable screenplay, adapted from his story with Sarah
Kernochan. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "What Lies Beneath"
is a menacing, ominous 6 - if you like the strange and supernatural.
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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