Domestic Disturbance

source: Domestic Disturbance

SPOILERS. It's not bad considering that it was probably designed by a committee of recent film school graduates and greenlighted by a tight-lipped gaggle of MBAs. It has a certain splashy tension and there are lots of action scenes but it doesn't own an original thought. And on the other hand it's not bad enough to be revoltingly amusing. The story is elementary. Travolta's ex wife has custody of their kid (Jason, what else) and she remarries a recently arrived guy (Vaughn) who is a business success and is on his way to becoming a pillar of the community. The problem with Vaughn is that he has a "past" in racketeering under a previous cognomen. Buscemi finds out where he's living, tracks him down, and applies a little blackmail logic, which is foolish because, as every moviegoer knows, when you try to extort money from a really rotten guy this is as likely to lead to the furnace of a brick factory as it is to a luxury condo in Boca Raton. The murder and disposal of the corpse is witnessed by Jason who tells everyone who will listen to him. Nobody listens to him. Except, after giving it due thought, Travolta realizes that Jason lies a lot, true -- but never to HIM. (This kid is a paragon of virtue.) So Travolta goes about uncovering the facts of the matter with the grudging help of the police and the sometimes fierce resistance of Vaughn. Things turn out as you expect. As I say, it's not original. I lost count of the number of times someone gets whacked over the head (or is thrown against a wall or clipped on the jaw) and falls unconscious to the floor, only to wake up just in time to save his/her life or otherwise interfere with destiny. One example. Travolta is beaned by Vaughn with what seems to be a crowbar. He collapses in a heap. Vaughn sets fire to the building (somebody involved in this movie like fires). The building goes up like a torch around Travolta's body. We have several shots of a huge wooden ladder suspended from the ceiling just over his body. In each shot the ladder is more thoroughly burned. It will fall on Travolta at any moment. But does it? No. Slowly Travolta shakes his head, massages his occiput, looks up and sees the flaming ladder about to drop. He crawls out under it, gets to his feet and leaps into the water outside the boat house. What a close call. What a very very tired close call. Travolta is okay, though. He gives a decent performance. So does everyone else for that matter. Whoever plays Vaughn stands out a bit from the others. He has the kind of bland face with a built-in open-mouth smile that could pass either for a priest's or a vampire's. But the juicy villain role is usually more attractive than that of the upright hero. This virtue is small potatoes in a huge olla podrida. The movie rolls along in its self-satisfied way, with the cash registers clinking in the background, until finally the credits roll. It would be good if Travolta picked his material more carefully. Everything he does in this movie, every expression, every tonal quirk, all of it put together, does not add up to what he contributes during the few seconds in "Pulp Fiction" when he comes crouching out of the toilet and looks up to find Bruce Willis pointing a machine pistol at him.

To start off, I enjoyed "Domestic Disturbance". I found it kept me shaking and on the edge of my seat through-out the entire film (which was rather short, by the way). ACTING: As you probably already know, this film has some of the best-in-the-biz. Including such stars as John Travolta and Vince Vaughn, alongside newcomer Daniel O'Leary. Travolta decently played the good-guy divorced father, trying to protect his teenage son from an apparent murderer. The murderer/stepfather was played typically by Vaugh who's portrayed serial killer roles in other movies such as "Clay Pigeons" and the remake of Hitchcock's classic thriller, "Psycho". And on to the young victim of mayhem... Daniel O'Leary. A relatively good child actor who convincingly plays a stressed, frightened teen boy seems the perfect choice, with his convicingly frightened facial expressions. All in all good acting. Mainly on Vaughn and Travolta's part. STORY/WRITING: The movie flails mainly in this category. Thrilling, edge-of-your seat thriller until un-eventful ending. I'll try not to give it away, but it's a tad rushed. The story isn't all-to origional, nor is anything else in this film. The dialogue is mediocre. Basically the entire script is pretty mediocre... DIRECTING: Very nice direction. The director's dark, creepy style carries the movie along swiftly. If this director had been given a better script, with the same actors, "Domestic Disturbance" could've achieved brilliance. Once again, direction is a high-point in this film. BOTTOM LINE: A good thriller. 7 out of 10 stars.

Frank and Laurie have been divorced for years but still get on well and look after their teenage son Danny. However when Laurie decides to get married to boyfriend Rick, Danny starts playing up, leading Frank to get involved with the happy couple to try and help his son accept the changes. However when an "old friend" of Rick's turns up at the wedding, Frank notices that Rick seems surprised by the man and, in casual chat, notices minor discrepancies in how the two men describe their relationship with one another. When Danny claims he has seen Rick murder his friend, Frank is the only one who believes his son. By choosing to let us in on the fact that Rick is indeed "a bad man", this drama becomes more a matter of time rather than a film that is packed with twists and intrigues. The detail of what way Rick is a "bad man" is not revealed until later on but this detail doesn't really matter and although the "revelation" is delivered as a discovery, the fact that the audience already knew most of it, we're not really with Frank as he gets sucked in. This is not to say it is a bad film, just quite an unmemorable one, as it doesn't have much special going on in it and just delivers a typical "enemy within" thriller (albeit quite low on thrills). This is due to the delivery mostly. Personally I would have preferred it if the film had kept an air of mystery and played with the character of Rick – it would have given Vaughn more to work with and would have made more of the mystery. As it is we trudge drearily towards the inevitable conclusion, doing what you'd expect in a professional manner which might be enough for many viewers just looking to fill time. The cast don't seem too thankful for having been given obvious material. Travolta is OK but he is hardly pushing out the ol' acting boat on this one. It is at least a chance to see Vaughn out of "Swingers" mode and he does well enough. It would have been much better for him to have had more mystery within his script but he is still OK. Tilney, Floyd, Santiago-Hudson and Buscemi all fill round the edges solidly enough but really nothing is there to allow any of them to do much more than produce generic performances within an obvious genre film. Polished and professional stuff then but nothing out of the ordinary or special. To fill a few hours with something undemanding and by-the-numbers, this is probably just good enough to do you as a genre film but a different delivery and better script could have produced something better and given Vaughn and Travolta more to do.

I didn't expect much from this movie but at the end I was very satisfied with the story. In the first third of the film happened not much but the last two thirds were suspenseful and very entertaining. There were also some scary moments and the soundtrack was also top. The picture was clear and the actors did a great job here. I liked especially John Travolta and Vince Vaughn. Congratulation also to the director Harold Becker and thank you. I hope that Hollywood will create more films like this one because quality is no more the same than before. After I watched it again with my wife we upgraded our rating from 6/10 to 7/10.

I liked this movie because it was a simple way pass 90 minutes in an entertaining fashion. This movie won't leave you pondering for days on end or even hours on end. It has John Travolta is the caring father who believes his son, when his son tells him that he witnessed Vince Vaughn MURDER Steve Bushemi (which he did). Vince Vaughn pulls off the bad guy role VERY well. John Travolta, as always, is convincing as the good guy. For such a short movie, it packed in a lot of great suspense and a good plot. I would suggest this to anybody who likes to feel tension during a movie!!

If you see this movie, you might as well be watching a made for TV movie! The acting,story everything about this movie has been done before. There is nothing new from Hollywood from this movie.Basically if you've seen the trailer and TV ads, you know what is going to happen. If you want to see this movie watch "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle". This movie is the male vs. male version of that movie. Instead of a baby in trouble, it's been changed to a 12 year boy. if you wish to see it fine but it's another recycled movie from Hollywood. Wait for it on DVD and video as it should be coming out in a few months. It also did very bad opening weekend? I guess John Travolta's bad movie streak he started with "Battlefield Earth" is still going on. If you like the film's main stars see it for that. But Vince Vaughn's bad guy drill is getting old(Clay Pigeons,Psycho anyone?) and Travolta still plays the good guy(expect for Battlefield Earth). I just wish this movie was a direct to video release and spared the big screen release!

A couple of hours ago I turned up this DVD in my father's collection and decided to watch the movie. I already watched it several months ago, but I didn't really remember details. I must say that all of the actors, especially Matt O'Leary, act astonishingly realistic, including their facial expressions and gestures. I like this movie because it covers several really important facts of family life I partially can understand quite well due to personal experience. Worth watching in any case!

The film deals about a divorced father(an agreeable role for John Travolta)named Frank, he's boat builder and shares custody with his ex-spouse(Teri Polo) of their son Danny(a newcomer Matt O'Leary). But she is about to marry again to suspect rich businessman(Vince Vaughn)named Rick. Then, in the little town takes appearance of Ray (a shady Steve Buscemi), a sleazy hood of Rick. Soon Danny is witness to a killing which nobody will believe took place, neither the police sergeant(Ruben Santiago-Hudson), only his daddy believes him. This enjoyable thriller contains suspense, thriller, tension and straightforward performances. Most of the acting seem excellent with special mention to Vince Vaughn as suave suitor turned to menacing new father and Steven Buscemi in a secondary role as seedy friend.The film is suspenseful though predictable with the final confrontation between good daddy and bad dad. Film displays colorful cinematography by Michael Seresin and appropriate musical score by Mark Mancina. The motion picture is professionally directed by Harold Becker. He's a gritty thrillers expert, charged with dark atmosphere and with famous stars, such as ¨The Onion field(John Woods), Sea of love(Pacino),Malice(Nicole Kidman),City Hall(again Pacino),Mercury rising(Bruce Willis) and this one with John Travolta making a top-notch interpretation. Rating: Passable and well worth watching.

There's nothing that pisses me off more in a movie than when someone fails to put up an adequate argument on their behalf when they're being accused of something. It's like they either have the character act like a total maniac by flying off the handle when denying what they're being accused of (so obviously the other party will of course not believe them now), or they say the completely wrong things and understate their case, and it is extremely frustrating to watch because you're just sitting there screaming, "WHY DON'T YOU JUST SAY THIS!!" When that kid was in the interrogation room, his best method of convincing people that a murder took place was by weakly repeating: "look, I know what I saw OK.." Yeah that's gonna convince people. I don't care if you're 12, that's not the way you argue with people, and it's unrealistic. The other thing that was silly was how the kid and the mother was STILL in the car by the time the father called her cell phone. They should've been gone by then, there was no logical reason why they would've still been in that garage, other than the fact the movie called for them to be there so the stepfather could catch them. Come on be intelligent when you write, justify your damn script.