Robert Zemeckis
is one of the best directors in the world, and I don't mean that in the
film geek kinda way, the way I say that Tim Burton is my favorite director.
I mean that in the way that a true critic would mean it, Robert Zemeckis
is one of the best in the world. His directing skills are up there with
Spielberg, Scorsese, Coppola, and Kubrick. Robert Zemeckis directed "Used
Cars," the "Back to the Future" trilogy, "Romancing
the Stone," "Death Becomes Her," and "Who Framed Roger
Rabbit." So far, so good, right? Well, what's most important are the
last two movies he directed, "Forrest Gump" and "Contact."
Those are big, important movies, and with "What Lies Beneath,"
it seems as though he's taking a break from important movies to do a fun
Hitchcock-inspired suspense movie. Don't worry. His next movie is one of
those important ones, and it comes out at the end of the year. It's called
"Cast
Away," and in it, he reunites with "Forrest Gump" star,
Tom Hanks.
One of the most discouraging things about this movie is that a big plot
point is given away in the trailer. What's up with that? When are these
people who make movie trailers gonna realize that they need to stop doing
that? Well, despite that, "What Lies Beneath" is a vastly entertaining
movie that has plenty of surprises that were mercifully untapped in the
trailer.
It's VERY obvious that Robert Zemeckis is paying homage to Alfred Hitchcock
in this movie. As a matter of fact, some shots I recognized as almost exact
duplicates of shots from "Psycho" and "Rear Window."
The thing is, the script, which DOES have plenty of good twists, uses standard
scare tactics to make the audience jump. Fortunately, in the hands of Robert
Zemeckis, even the most anticipated frights work perfectly. There are some
authentically startling moments in this movie, and all the credit there
goes to Zemeckis.
Two of Hollywood's biggest names are in this one, Harrison Ford and Michelle
Pfeiffer, and they're both very good, especially Michelle Pfeiffer. She
needs every emotion in the book, and she executes them perfectly, and most
importantly, she executes them believably. That's key in a movie like this.
"What Lies Beneath" is a story written by Sarah Kernochan (helped
write "Sommersby" and "9 1/2 Weeks") and Clark Gregg,
and he also wrote the screenplay. This is Clark Gregg's debut, but he's
done some acting. Interestingly enough, he played Kevin Rooney, Mike Tyson's
former trainer in the HBO docudrama, "Tyson."
This is nothing more than a popcorn movie, but it's a GOOD popcorn movie.
I'm not sure if I'd like it as much if the script was in the hands of a
lesser director (and lesser actors), but in the hands of Robert Zemeckis,
it's pretty damn good.