ROBERT ZEMECKIS
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BBBB.
USA, 2000. DreamWorks, Twentieth Century Fox, ImageMovers. Story by Sarah Kernochan, Clark Gregg, Screenplay by Clark Gregg. Cinematography by Don Burgess. Produced by Jack Rapke, Steve Starkey, Robert Zemeckis. Music by Alan Silvestri. Production Design by Rick Carter, William James Teegarden. Costume Design by Susie DeSanto. Film Editing by Arthur Schmidt.
Rip-roaring good fun from Robert Zemeckis. Michelle Pfeiffer lives an idyllic life in the suburbs in a giant house with her husband (Harrison Ford), but succumbs to melancholy when her only daughter moves away to college. Hearing funny noises and seeing odd occurrences in her home when she’s alone, Pfeiffer chalks it up to a case of nerves, but not for long! Soon she begins to suspect there’s a poltergeist in her house and decides to get to the bottom of it, despite her husband thinking she’s gone off her rocker. Pfeiffer is such a good actress that staring at her expressive face for two and a half hours is nothing short of grand pleasure, and she carries off the whole thing without a hitch. I won’t give too many answers away, but let me just say that the bathtub sequence is one of the most nerve-wracking and terrifying experiences I’ve had in a movie theatre in my life (even with all the obvious lifts from Hitchcock’s Psycho). Diana Scarwid has a wonderful supporting role, and there’s also an appearance by the superb Wendy Crewson.
