It's no secret that this Summer's entertainment offerings have been less than superb. This Summer, there's only been one movie that truly stands out from the bunch (The Others) and everything else has pretty much followed the same, boring routine. When I saw the trailers for Michael Douglas' newest thriller, I thought that they just might have something - and they did - if only for the first half of the movie.

Don't Say a Word starts of with the all-too-cliche bank robbery with a twist and then fast-forwards 10 years. It's Thanksgiving day, everything appears normal (although the audience already knows what's happened), but one thing's missing - Dr. Nathan Conrad's (Douglas) daughter is nowhere in sight. After a quick search of the house, the only thing out of place is the cut chain that usually locks the door. Outside, to further corroborate a kidnapping is Jessie's sock in the hallway. What to do? Wait for the phone call of course.

Quite predictably, the phone call comes and Dr. Conrad is forced to obtain a six digit number that his newest patient at the mental hospital has locked up inside of her. To complicate things further, he only has until 5pm to get the code (about 7 hours). His wife now must be left home alone to fend for herself (bed-ridden following a skiing accident) while Dr. Conrad pries the number from the girl's fragile mind. It's a twisted, complicated, and convoluted plot, but quite surprisingly, it all blends together quite nicely as we follow three to four separate storylines at any one time all leading to a nice, neat conclusion. As the movie progresses and these storylines come together, it all happens just a bit too nicely and the movie eventually fails to sustain the suspense that had been built up during the first half of the movie.

Creating the suspense is Michael Douglas in the role that he seems to be typecast in. He's always frantically searching for something and, to his credit, he plays this role perfectly (hence the typecast). Partnering up with Douglas to create the suspense is Brittany Murphy as the psychiatric patient with the number inside of her. She is eerily convincing as the mental patient whom Dr. conrad has only a short time to pry the information out of. Douglas and Murphy single-handedly keep this movie rolling along, and without either of them, this would have just been another one of those summer movie flops. Where the movie errs is in the introduction of police detective Sandra Cassidy (Jennifer Esposito) as she tries to uncover a mystery behind a floating body found in the water off New York. Her investigation is time-consuming and painfully slow at times and drags the whole movie down. Had this plot element been removed, the end result would have been a much more tightly woven psychological thriller - but then again, without her, we wouldn't be able to expect the picture-perfect ending that audiences have grown accustomed to.

Don't Say a Word isn't a perfect movie, but it's got just enough suspense and good acting from Douglas and Murphy to be worth the price of admission. Despite some obvious plot holes, the movie is able to deliver a good time and is recommended.

Genres: Thriller, Action, Suspense
Rated: R - For violence, including some gruesome images, and language.
Runtime: 120 minutes
Talk back in the discussion boards!