What Lies Beneath - Film Review

Starring: Harrison Ford, Michelle Pfeiffer, Diana Scarwid, Joe Norton, Jamrs Remar, Miranda Otto, Amber Valletta
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis

In this mind games thriller, director Robert Zemeckis is following the well-trodden path of a protagonist in the am-I-going-mad? predicament. Right down to the regulation visit to the shrink, which of course accomplishes nothing, since the apparent delusion goes on and on. Unfortunately, the film seems to suffer some psychological problems of its own - a classic schizophrenia. It can't make up its mind whether it is a.psychological thriller or yet another offering in the Poltergeist opus.
It's definitely a game of two halves, with the first half by far the weaker.
From the outset, Zemeckis throws us enough red herrings to fill an Agatha Christie omnibus. Dr. Norman Spencer (Harrison Ford) is a renowned geneticist, living under the shadow of his even more brilliant father, now dead. He and his wife Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer) are doing up his father's old house by a lake, a keynote in this very watery movie.
Claire has just seen her daughter off to boarding school, and is feeling a bit down. She starts experiencing strange happenings and wonders if she is just experiencing a bout of empty nest syndrome...or is she going mad?
The good doctor is working very hard on a paper which will be the crowning glory of his career and consequently has to leave Claire alone in the house a lot. Oh, oh.
First of all there are the new neighbours, Warren and Mary, who have heated rows in public and Warren seems to be up to no good. Claire starts spying on them and jumps to a lot of conclusions.
Then strange things start happening in the house...baths keep mysteriously filling up...pictures take on a life of their own and crash to the ground...doors open by themselves...electrical appliances switch themselves on. Which seems to take us right into the heart of Poltergeist territory.
This is bolstered up by a non-stop barrage of "scary" cinematic cheap tricks and cliches, including, heaven help us, the oldest one in the book...
The trembling heroine faces the slowly opening door. There is nobody else in the house. She gasps as it creaks open another inch.
We cut to her eyes, saucers overflowing with abject terror. Another inch.
Her breathing and heartbeat assault the eardrums in unmediated Dolby Surround. Another inch...
Now, we happen to know from several establishing shots, that this family possesses a rather boisterous and lovable dog. Guess what happens next. Answers on a postcard, please. Still, to Zemeckis's credit, he does later have the sense of humour to fail to complete another scary movie cliche which he set up, when the shapely ankles of Pfeiffer, or those of her body double, are carefully treading past a body.
The first half of the film meanders along this maze, desperately trying to find an identity for itself. Claire's strange sightings cause strife between her and her overworking husband, threatening the marriage, despite his attempts to understand her to the extent of providing a psychiatrist and contacting an expert in the paranormal.
But just when we are expecting the funny folk to come creeping out of the floorboards, the film suddenly changes tack, and we are thrust firmly into the realm of the classic psychological thriller. This is when it really begins to find its pace.
A lot of what has been happening is explained in real, everyday terms, involving a missing girl. But then, a lot isn't. Zemeckis deliberately muddies the waters - here we go with the water again - and leaves a lot of the paranormal as an intriguing aftertaste. The interplay between the real and the spooky is never completely unravelled. Just what is real and what is unreal? Well, you can decide.
Claire is caught up in the middle of all this, but slowly things.begin to come clear to her. Unfortunately, this leads her into dire peril.
The gripping second half of the movie contains all the suspense and cliff-hanging action . you expect from this team, leading to a heart-pounding and involving climax. Definitely a must for Harrison Ford fans - for this is Harrison Ford as you have never seen him before.