because you can't have too much entertainment... July 2000

Beneath the Reviews

What Lies Beneath Dir: Robert Zemeckis Starring: the goddess herself,
the delectable, iconic, and spectacular Michelle Pfeiffer. Harrison Ford is in it too.

If you manage to make it past the rage & frustration that may have swelled through you while watching the trailer to What Lies Beneath -you will have fun in the theater. I say this primarily to get you there because I'm sure the insipid and condescending trailer did not do that. It still enrages me that the marketing team could think of no other way to promote this film than giving away its central (but not its only) surprise. 'Hello...' one big director. two VERY big stars. a very popular genre. How difficult is that to market successfully? A few fantastically visual images (the film has these in abundance) and the requisite movie star names filling the screen and you would have filled the seats opening weekend.

But I don't really want to review the trailer...

The advertising has come and gone and scared (not in the good way) many potential moviegoers away. It's already done its damage. The reviews are now doing the same. They typically range from overcooked to predictable to hokey to derivative to 'a glacier of poo' or something to that effect (oh so eloquently put on the always entertaining Aint-It-Cool-News.) The really strange thing about these critiques is that it didn't seem to occur to anyone that this film might be derivative on purpose. The references to other (admittedly greater) films are legion and hardly obscure. It's called a prestige director slumming it in a B genre. Robert Zemeckis is clearly having a ball here. As for the other criticisms...Overcooked? Hokey? Sure. It's a ghost story. What do you want? They're usually a little farfetched and melodramatic as a genre. Predictable? Only because you've seen the cliffnotes version -I mean, trailer- for months.

But I don't really want to review the reviews...

What I want to do is suggest that you see it. It's a little obvious. It's a lot meandering. It's silly. It's also tons of fun. The scares are of the jumping and screaming sort and not of the violently nauseous variety. The cinematography is, pure and simply put, gorgeous eye candy. The shots are wonderfully composed. The homages to Hitchcock are exuberantly entertaining if you don't consider them blasphemous. There's lots of unexpected grace notes -particularly from the supporting cast. Harrison Ford finally has some chemistry with a co-star again. And speaking of Michelle Pfeiffer...oh God, the ever glorious Pfeiffer is magnificent. The camera hasn't fetishized her this much since she cracked the whips and licked Batman's lips as Catwoman eight years ago. She's center stage again where she belongs. All that and she gives one nifty nerve wracking star turn as well. That''s reason enough alone to put the trailer and the reviews beneath you. Get over them. Have fun. See the film.

-Nathaniel 

P.S. Want to see how Pfeiffer is faring with the critics right now -go here.
Related Link: Pfandom: Michelle Pfeiffer Forever

-Nathaniel

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