The main characters in "Don’t Say a Word" are so well sketched and the buildup is so suspenseful you could find yourself biting your nails to the quick - at least for the first two thirds of the movie. After that I began to feel cheated by a late inning stretch of the imagination that undermined the story’s credibility.

A ruthless gang led by a Patrick Koster (Sean Bean) steals a priceless gem from an unmarked safety deposit box deep from the bowels of a bank vault. Director Gary Fleder keeps things moving at such a brisk speed you never have time to question the movie’s logic. There are shootouts, car crashes and an amazingly simple, yet totally believable double cross. Flash forward ten years later. Dr. Nathan Conrad (Michael Douglas), child shrink extraordinaire, is asked by one of his oldest colleagues, Dr. Jerry Sachs (Oliver Platt), to check out his latest patient - Elizabeth Burrows (Brittany Murphy) - a mentally disturbed teenager linked to an old murder case. Nathan uses every trick in the book to break through to her. Just when he begins to make some progress, his daughter is kidnapped. A phone call from the kidnappers convinces him that he’s got to speed up Elizabeth’s recovery. Nathan has to find the key in Elizabeth’s subconscious that will unlock the secret to the gem’s hiding place. To paraphrase the movie’s tag line, she’ll never tell. Well - Michael Douglas is the star, so you know at some point, he’s gonna make her squeal. But not before Dr. Jerry gets sucked into the scheme, Nathan’s convalescing wife (Famke Janssen) becomes a target, and a zealous cop (Jennifer Esposito) is blindly put on the trail of the kidnappers. There’s also a few flashbacks to fill in the blanks. At some point you’re forced to ask yourself how these brain dead thugs became so good at the electronic surveillance that figures in the action. You can suspend belief only so far, but the evidence in the movie works against it - like how they spent their ten year hiatus between the gem heist and the present. There is mention of Patrick Koster as a ‘ghost’ figure who came out of nowhere, but the information seems too simplistic to have merit. (If his name was Kyser Soze I might have believed it but he’s from another movie). Suddenly, and without warning I felt like someone let all the air out my tires and my journey through Dr. Nathan Conrad’s head trip came to a screeching halt. No new twist or turn in the plot could resurrect my enthusiasm. To make matters worse, the final epitaph of Patrick Koster is written with one climax too many. It has something to do with the filmmakers remaining true to Dr. Conrad’s moral character.

The most exciting part of the screening of "Don’t Say a Word" came at one of the movie’s least exciting parts. The image of the twin towers of the World Trade Center flashed on the screen in the background of a transitional shot and the audience roared with approval. It had nothing to do with the movie and everything to do with the state of mind after the September 11^th attack on America. It was a bright spot after a sorrowful week.

Copyright 2001

"Seance on a Wet Afternoon" (1962) - Dir. Bryan Forbes: Great psychological thriller with Richard Attenborough as the milquetoast husband of a demented mentalist (Kim Stanley) who gets sucked up in her bizarre kidnapping scheme. Great atmosphere and terrific Black and White Cinematography are a plus.

"High and Low" (1964) - One of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s best films. Toshiro Mifune is a wealthy business man who puts his conscience before his assets when his chauffeur’s kid is mistaken for his own son and kidnapped. The high refers to the places of power and privilege open to a man of means, and the low is the depths of Japanese criminal society he is forced to travel. The title also acts as a metaphor for heaven and hell.

"Ransom" (1956) - Decent entry into the genre with Glenn Ford as a wealthy businessman who must come up with the dough to get his kid back.

"Ransom" (1996) - Dir. Ron Howard: An elaborate thrilling reconfiguration of the 1956 film with Mel Gibson as a self made millionaire who tries to beat his son’s kidnappers at their own game. Exciting from beginning to end with Gary Sinise as the brazen bad guy.

Co-written by Richard Price, screenwriter of "Clockers" (1995) based on his own novel as well as "Sea of Love" (1989) and "The Color of Money" (1986).

One off the wall video pick for an electronic surveillance scenario that works.

"The Anderson Tapes" (1971) - Dir. Sidney Lumet: Sean Connery is a career criminal out to sack a luxury apartment in New York who is unaware that he is being watched. A quintessential New York movie.