Inimigo em Casa

This was a decent thriller with good-guy "Frank Morrison" (John Travolta) trying to save his former family from the dangerous new husband. That's not a new theme in Hollywood movies (the dangerous husband) but this is acted well and presented without heavy-handedness. They were smart to keep the story relatively-short, too, at 89 minutes. As a consequence, nothing dragged.

To me, the film would have been more enjoyable had the 12-year-old boy been a nicer kid, but he's an annoying brat. The mother (Teri Polo) is not that endearing, either. Definitely a movie that will entertain but a one-look film and nothing more, especially with the ending being as predictable as it turned out.

'Domestic Disturbance' is pretty much another typical Hollywood thriller. The thing with these movies is that they are very easy to predict. We already know what will happen in the end. So why watch it? Well, the plot might be interesting. In this case, it isn't bad but it gives the deja-vu impression. It isn't anything intricate enough to create suspense but what kept me entertained were the characters and actors. I liked Travolta's Frank. A hardworking down-to-earth boatmaker who's going through a slump in business because people prefer plastic over wood. But through it all he remains a good father and a kind person at heart. It was fun to watch Vince Vaughn play a sociopath. He does not overact and brilliantly maintains Rick's deceitful gentleman mask behind which hides someone dangerous. The child actor is clueless. Teri Polo is pretty much given a clichéd role but I liked her, especially in the scene where she discovers that Rick was the one who set fire. 'Domestic Disturbance' doesn't have much (or anything?) to offer in terms of novelty but it was not exactly boring for me so one can give it a go if there is nothing else better on offer.

Frank and Laurie have been divorced for years but still get on well and look after their teenage son Danny. However when Laurie decides to get married to boyfriend Rick, Danny starts playing up, leading Frank to get involved with the happy couple to try and help his son accept the changes. However when an "old friend" of Rick's turns up at the wedding, Frank notices that Rick seems surprised by the man and, in casual chat, notices minor discrepancies in how the two men describe their relationship with one another. When Danny claims he has seen Rick murder his friend, Frank is the only one who believes his son.

By choosing to let us in on the fact that Rick is indeed "a bad man", this drama becomes more a matter of time rather than a film that is packed with twists and intrigues. The detail of what way Rick is a "bad man" is not revealed until later on but this detail doesn't really matter and although the "revelation" is delivered as a discovery, the fact that the audience already knew most of it, we're not really with Frank as he gets sucked in. This is not to say it is a bad film, just quite an unmemorable one, as it doesn't have much special going on in it and just delivers a typical "enemy within" thriller (albeit quite low on thrills). This is due to the delivery mostly. Personally I would have preferred it if the film had kept an air of mystery and played with the character of Rick – it would have given Vaughn more to work with and would have made more of the mystery. As it is we trudge drearily towards the inevitable conclusion, doing what you'd expect in a professional manner which might be enough for many viewers just looking to fill time.

The cast don't seem too thankful for having been given obvious material. Travolta is OK but he is hardly pushing out the ol' acting boat on this one. It is at least a chance to see Vaughn out of "Swingers" mode and he does well enough. It would have been much better for him to have had more mystery within his script but he is still OK. Tilney, Floyd, Santiago-Hudson and Buscemi all fill round the edges solidly enough but really nothing is there to allow any of them to do much more than produce generic performances within an obvious genre film.

Polished and professional stuff then but nothing out of the ordinary or special. To fill a few hours with something undemanding and by-the-numbers, this is probably just good enough to do you as a genre film but a different delivery and better script could have produced something better and given Vaughn and Travolta more to do.

To start off, I enjoyed "Domestic Disturbance". I found it kept me shaking and on the edge of my seat through-out the entire film (which was rather short, by the way).

ACTING: As you probably already know, this film has some of the best-in-the-biz. Including such stars as John Travolta and Vince Vaughn, alongside newcomer Daniel O'Leary. Travolta decently played the good-guy divorced father, trying to protect his teenage son from an apparent murderer.

The murderer/stepfather was played typically by Vaugh who's portrayed serial killer roles in other movies such as "Clay Pigeons" and the remake of Hitchcock's classic thriller, "Psycho". And on to the young victim of mayhem...

Daniel O'Leary. A relatively good child actor who convincingly plays a stressed, frightened teen boy seems the perfect choice, with his convicingly frightened facial expressions.

All in all good acting. Mainly on Vaughn and Travolta's part.

STORY/WRITING: The movie flails mainly in this category. Thrilling, edge-of-your seat thriller until un-eventful ending. I'll try not to give it away, but it's a tad rushed.

The story isn't all-to origional, nor is anything else in this film. The dialogue is mediocre. Basically the entire script is pretty mediocre...

DIRECTING: Very nice direction. The director's dark, creepy style carries the movie along swiftly. If this director had been given a better script, with the same actors, "Domestic Disturbance" could've achieved brilliance.

Once again, direction is a high-point in this film.

BOTTOM LINE: A good thriller. 7 out of 10 stars.

There's nothing that pisses me off more in a movie than when someone fails to put up an adequate argument on their behalf when they're being accused of something.

It's like they either have the character act like a total maniac by flying off the handle when denying what they're being accused of (so obviously the other party will of course not believe them now), or they say the completely wrong things and understate their case, and it is extremely frustrating to watch because you're just sitting there screaming, "WHY DON'T YOU JUST SAY THIS!!"

When that kid was in the interrogation room, his best method of convincing people that a murder took place was by weakly repeating: "look, I know what I saw OK.." Yeah that's gonna convince people. I don't care if you're 12, that's not the way you argue with people, and it's unrealistic.

The other thing that was silly was how the kid and the mother was STILL in the car by the time the father called her cell phone. They should've been gone by then, there was no logical reason why they would've still been in that garage, other than the fact the movie called for them to be there so the stepfather could catch them.

Come on be intelligent when you write, justify your damn script.