Release Date: January 28, 2005
Starring: Robert De Niro, Dakota Fanning, Elisabeth Shue, Robert John Burke, Dylan Baker, Amy Irving
Directed by: John Polson
Written by: Ari Schlossberg
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox Films
MPAA Rating: R (frightening sequences, violence)
Hide and Seek does better than you might expect from what appears to be a formulaic thriller. That is, until it actually has to do something with the suspense it has created. It does a good job of creating a creepy atmosphere and believable characters, but it cheats terribly when the payoff is due. Just when you think it might lead you into something genuinely scary and original, it falls very short and probably hopes you don’t care.
We do care, though, which is why it’s so disappointing. We’ve been introduced to two interesting characters -- Dr. David Callaway (Robert De Niro) and his daughter Emily (Dakota Fanning) -- who have been put in a traumatic situation: Alison (Amy Irving), David’s wife and Emily’s mother, has just killed herself in the family’s bathtub, and David and Emily move out of the city to start a quiet new life. Then Emily starts to act strangely in their new home, becoming distant and hostile.
The movie takes its time setting up this premise (in fact, the opening credits come 10 minutes into the film), and this is helpful in introducing us to the characters. They’re well played by De Niro, who makes a welcome return to dramatic acting, and the young Fanning, who uses her talent to raise plenty of tension. When Emily claims she has a new imaginary friend named Charlie and starts blaming him for all the eerie things that happen in the Callaways’ new home, the movie has our attention.
As is customary with the mystery/thriller genre, a number of clues are dropped into the narrative to keep us guessing. There’s a suspicious neighbor (Robert John Burke) who has recently lost his son, a curious local sheriff (Dylan Baker) who drops in rather frequently, an attractive woman (Elizabeth Shue) who makes Emily angry for dating David, and some creepy woods near their new house that captures Emily’s attention as soon as they move in. And of course, there’s the psychological damage Emily is suffering in the aftermath of her mother’s suicide.
We’re lead to think at least one of these things must be behind Emily’s strange behavior. So when it turns out that nearly all of the clues were meant only to throw us off from the real answer -- an almost arbitrary, unrelated plot point -- it drastically cheapens everything that had been established until then, especially because the twist is lacks both credibility and creativity. Until the third act, everything is believable, which makes the suspense quite real; unfortunately, the climax is almost the exact opposite.
I could write a half-dozen paragraphs on why the twist doesn’t work, but to reveal the surprise here would be cheating on my part. So I’ll simply say that it’s a storytelling gimmick that has become very tiresome in recent Hollywood thrillers. It’s movies like this that are manufactured for the sole purpose of pulling the rug out from under the viewer, regardless of how well you’re emotionally or intellectually invested in the mystery. It hurts a little more with Hide and Seek, though, because of how strongly it begins; the film gives us hope that it will be different and more satisfying than run-of-the-mill genre entries. In the end, sadly, the movie is ultimately what you’d expect to begin with -- a cheap contortionist’s act of fiction -- and it’s only worth your time if you’re willing to endure a completely contrived and unsatisfying ending.
-- Andy Zientek (zfilm@earthlink.net)