What Lies Beneath (2000)

What Lies Beneath 

What would happen if Robert Zemeckis did an impression of M. Night Shyamalan doing an impression of Alfred Hitchcock? "What Lies Beneath" is the answer. It's this year's "The Sixth Sense" only with an all-adult cast and a more intense plot about supposedly happy people who aren't as happy as they seem and when their secrets are revealed the plot gets thicker and suspense ensues.

The problem is it takes the film a really REALLY long time to get to said secrets. The first two thirds are all just build-up without much development of the story. There's practically no second act, it goes straight to the major conflict and then a series of plot twists and action sequences and ends at the climax of the story. There's no epilogue.

So why am I giving this film a positive review? Because it works. It's a thriller that's not dumbed down and a horror movie not about gore. It's the kind of film that doesn't come around that often so we must be appreciative. It's got two of the best actors in showbusiness as the leads (Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeifer for all of you who have been living underwater for the last year or so). It's directed by a master autuer doing something different from his usual style. He's clearly drawing from Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick, but they're legends of the film world and Zemeckis is on his way to being one too. In any other director's hands this probably wouldn't have worked.

This is a great movie to see with a packed audience - be prepared to jump out 
of your seat quite a few
times. 

GRADE: B 

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