La mort en dédicace

The script telegraphs all of its "surprises", the direction is strictly by-the-numbers and Dylan McDermott is a bland lead. There are only two noteworthy elements in this movie: the dangerous, edgy intensity Tom Sizemore brings to his role, and a couple of steamy moments provided by Sharon Stone, who was then at her best-looking phase; at one point she actually says to McDermott: "Don't fret, you 'll get the check in a week and you can have me now". Now that's what I call a GOOD DEAL. (**)

There are three reasons to watch, and enjoy, this film... Sizemore, Sizemore and Sizemore.

Dylan McDermott is alright and all, beefcake does nothing for me. A dozen guys could've played this part. A half dozen would've made something of it. Sharon Stone... anyone could have played her part, and she acted as if she was proving just that. She looked good doing it, no surprise. A little slow moving and the plot is very predictable but a nice ending semi-twist.

It is Tom Sizemore's performance that makes this film worth watching. I always liked this guy but he does a good-to-great weirdo in this movie.

7 out of 10... Too generous?? To each his own.

"Where Sleeping Dogs Lie" would have been a much better film had the director and writer tightened the screen play in which it's based. Charles Finch, the director, and Yolanda Turner, the writer, tried to put some life into the film with mixed results.

The story of Bruce, a writer that is house sitting a mansion that has seen better days, offers a lot of possibilities. Bruce made the discovery about a murder that has taken place in the house. To make matters worse, he agrees into taking a lodger, the creepy Eddie Hale. The viewer realizes right away where the story is going. The result is an uneven movie that has some good elements and with another creative team it might have been more interesting.

Dylan McDermott is Bruce, the writer. Tom Sizemore has more opportunity playing the strange Eddie Hale, who is the key to the mystery surrounding the mansion and what happened in it years ago. Sharon Stone is seen as a literary agent that wants to dare Bruce into producing a masterpiece.

"Where Sleeping Dogs Lie" is a curiosity piece that is mildly engrossing.

This is a film that has you thinking about it later on for a few days. You can't seem to get it out of your mind. I found it absolutely enjoyable. The storyline and the acting is terrific. Suspenseful and intoxicating.

I was left waiting, and waiting... and waiting. "Where Sleepig Dogs Lie" is a sleepy, and cold-hearted psychological thriller with a lot converstational pieces and reflective posturing which doesn't go anywhere with it all. Dylan McDermott plays a struggling writer Bruce Simmons who moonlights as a real estate agent to earn some cash, yet he moves into the house he's meant to be selling after finding himself homeless. There he accidently uncovers the house's dark history - the previous tennants were brutally slaughtered by a murderer who was never caught. So there becomes the basis of his next novel... without realising what he's really getting into. Also a stranger (Tom Sizemore) arrives on the scene asking if he could rent out a room, and Bruce obliges. However in doing so, he might dig up a past best left alone.

So the premise had me hooked, just the execution left me lukewarm. The thing is, it was predictable and you could see the twists in the story coming. So you're just waiting for the thrills and spills to make up for its uneventul progression, but they never eventuate in spite of the dangerous predictament evolving. Which makes it rather boring because you're waiting for McDermott's character to figure it out and when he eventully does (takes him long enough) you'll think suspense would be at boiling point, yet its simply flatlines and rushes through its anticlimax.

It's disappointing, because I liked Sizemore's jittery performance. He grows particularly unnerving as film goes along, and it really does faulter when he isn't on screen becuase he is the most fascinating character. Forseeable traits, yet the chemistry between McDermott and Sizemore's characters is what the plot hangs off. Details upon details lead to uncomfortable and factured truths, and two minds are presumably after one end. Its just can you live with the consequences. And the final few minutes paint it perfectly. It's just the journey to that point was too straightforward that it lacked the ups and downs to keep me fully invested.