What Lies Beneath

Movie Title: What Lies Beneath
Official Website (it might still work): What Lies Beneath
Rating (out of 10): 8
Reviewed By: Michael Stevens
Buy the: Video/DVD \| Soundtrack
The Review:

I think we all often try to look at what lies beneath both ourselves and those around us. For instance, does so and so really like me or is it just a facade, or is the friendly old lady down the street really a serial killer with a heart of stone? In the end we never really know who people are, only who they let us see, and vice versa. Of course this isn't a psychological analysis of society, but it is a movie review of What Lies Beneath, a thriller starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford (Random Hearts). The setting is a small town in Vermont (aren't they all small there?) where Ford plays Dr. Norman Spencer, a renowned scientist at the local university. Norman is married to Claire (Pfeiffer from The Deep End of the Ocean) who was once a cellist before giving it up to raise her daughter on her own. The film starts off with the daughter Caitlin (Katharine Towne, She's All That) heading off to college so that Norman and Claire are home alone (but no Macaulay Culkin). Soon though Claire starts hearing things and seeing in the house (plus she thinks her neighbor killed his wife). She freaks out and talks to her friend Jody who is kind of into spiritual things. At the same time we learn that Claire was in a bad auto accident a year prior and couldn't remember much from that night. Well now her memory starts to clear up, and she recalls discovering that her husband was unfaithful. Dat Dat Dummm. Pretty much all hell breaks loose at this point in the film as Claire finally learns what lies beneath her husbands loving demeanor (couldn't resist using that play on words). Since this is a thriller and mystery story, I won't tell you the ending and who kills whom. However I will tell you that there are a lot of supernatural occurrences in this PG-13 film. The rest of the cast includes Tom Dahlgren, Wendy Crewson, Ray Baker, Victoria Bidewell, Amber Valletta, Miranda Otto, James Remar, and Joe Morton (Apt Pupil) as Dr. Drayton. This film kept me guessing as to who would end up in the cemetery as a resident and not as a visitor. You can pretty much guess who killed the college co-ed and even why, but you don't expect all the supernatural help that comes along. Ford did a great job as a bad guy (something I've never seen him do before) and Pfeiffer did a good job too (plus I just like looking at her anyway). In conclusion, I give What Lies Beneath (a Robert Zemeckis directed film) a score of eight couches for the About-Movies.com rating.