Le profiler

In low budget thrillers we generally don't expect to find genuine shock and depth of characterization. But this film has both. What is particularly surprising is the level of complexity suggested in Ally Walker's portrayal of the lead character Audrey McLeah. The film's script in and of itself doesn't sufficiently account for the undercurrents of alienation and fear that we glimpse in the Audrey character. However, Ally Walker, in what was a fairly early role in her career, manages to convey pain through restraint. It's remarkable work in a vehicle that doesn't necessarily require it.

The film even has some powerful poetic touches such as the scars on Audrey's back, scars that resonate all the more powerfully because they appear in one scene and then vanish while the viewer continues to wonder about their origins and about the many kinds of scars that are evident in the film. Here once again Ally Walker demonstrates an impressive skill for sensitive understatement.

When the Bough Breaks sets an all-time record for unresolved loose ends: scars on the back, birth defects, numbers on the palms, role of the full-time ice cream clown, and on and on. Of course, there are suggestions of untold stories that parallel and bisect the story. But there's enough here to feed a decade-long TV series. (Oops. There goes my chance to make a killing on the spin-offs.)

There are signs of a heart beat in the characters of Audrey Macleah and Jordan/Jenny--but the pulse is weak.

Turn of the light. Sit alone. Drink a beer. Feel alone !. This movie will bring you down. This one is a thriller.

The end is not so good but in the right atmosphere this movie will not let you slip away from the tense story. "Silence of the lambs" is the best description I can give, though it never reaches this point of excellence.

Up until near the end this film held my attention. There's plenty of suspense. Set in Houston, the story involves a hotshot young investigator named Audrey Macleah (Ally Walker) assigned to assist police Captain Swaggert (Martin Sheen) in a grisly case of severed hands.

The plot plays out in segments corresponding to dates, beginning on July 4th and spans a period of about two weeks. During this time, Macleah interviews a young boy in a mental ward, chases a prospective child killer, and ends up in a spooky old house that contains some spooky surprises. This thriller genre film sports foreboding background sounds and music to enhance the scary visuals.

Unfortunately, the ending collapses into a pile of unresolved issues and an incoherent resolution that left me confused. It's like the scriptwriter knew exactly where he wanted to take the story, but then near the end got his pages all mixed up, or lost, and used pages from another script to complete this one. Baffling.

The casting and performance of Walker is also baffling. She comes across as jittery and abrasive, in marked contrast to Sheen who gives a convincingly realistic performance. But maybe Walker's problem relates more to the Director's style. The film exhibits good production design and color cinematography. Amplified sound effects convey an appropriate immediacy to scenes.

Despite the script's loose ends and poor ending, "When The Bough Breaks" is still worth a one-time watch due to superb suspense through most of the film.

When the severed hands of children are found in a drain after a storm, a police profiler (Ally Walker) is brought in to investigate and uncovers a link with a severely autistic boy (Tara Subkoff) who had been incarcerated since he was 4 years-old.

An indie thriller that seems to be similar to many made in the mid 1990s that followed in the wake of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1990). It does contain some good and effective suspenseful moments, but there are way too many holes in the plot and unresolved issues which will leave the viewer more confused than when they started.