What Lies Beneath, 2000. Review.
Robert Zemeckis channels Hitchcock to create an engrossing thriller.
Apr 10, 2009
A director of great skill and story telling ability, Robert Zemeckis is a rare Hollywood director who very much like Spielberg attempts to delve into different film genres and make his mark on each in his own unique way. He gave us time travel in 1985 with Back to the Future, he proved in 1988 that he could take animation to startling new levels with the groundbreaking Who Framed Roger Rabbit and has since received a Best Director Oscar for the multi-layered and captivating drama Forrest Gump whilst also creating a career high for actor Tom Hanks. He has experimented with Science Fiction on Contact in 1997 and in 2000 as well as directing Tom Hanks once again in Cast Away he entered the domain of the thriller with the eerie What Lies Beneath.
Taking Apart The Perfect World
Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford work brilliantly and convincingly in the first half of this film as a couple who not without their ups and downs and arguments lead a seemingly happy relationship in a large house overlooking a beautiful lake. In Hitchcock fashion Zemeckis and his crew start to film the house at different angles, casting dark shadows over what originally seems to be a beautiful dwelling to create something menacing and brooding. As Claire (Pfeiffer) starts to hear noises and sees a ghostly face in her bath tub the perfect world is turned upside down. As an audience we side with Harrison Ford. Notorious for playing the hero (see Indiana Jones, Star Wars, The Fugitive) it is a shock to the audience in itself when he is discovered to have had an affair and killed a young girl whose spirit is instructing Claire and giving her clues and Ford's Norman tries to go to any lengths to stop Claire from revealing his secret.
Sub Plots And Diversions Create Just The Right Amount Of Tension
Whilst it may seem unncessary to some viewers, the sub plot of the film with the two neighbours is a crucial diversion from the filmmakers in leading us and Claire off track and thinking that Warren Feur (James Remar) has murdered his wife Mary (Miranda Otto) after we and Claire see her in an emotional state in the garden inside the first 15 minutes of the film. We are expecting something to happen here and Zemeckis sets things up superbly, including the lengthy scene in which Claire is spying on him through binoculars. The dog is barking, Warren gives her a menacing stare, she sees muddy footsteps leading up to the house and we share her nervous disposition. She turns to find Norman standing behind her. The reaction is one of relief at this stage but the wool is pulled from ours and Claire's eyes as the film progresses and Norman reveals the truth, leading to the thrilling climax.
Norman Spencer, Madison and Norman Bates
Another sign that we also don't give a second thought is the very first image of the film. As the titles appear under the murky water we are presented with a close up of a dead looking face which transforms into Michelle Pfeiffer's face rising from the bath tub. We learn as the story progresses that this is the face of Madison Frank (Amber Valletta), the missing girl who is the main element of the narrative. We dismiss this opening image until Claire begins her suspicions and starts to see images in the bath tub of Madison. This is another clever Hitchockian plot device resurrected for 21st century audiences by Zemeckis. Like Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) in Psycho, Norman is first presented as a normal individual until the story unravels and the big reveal comes to the surface.
Silvestri's Score Rounds Off A Well Constructed Modern Day Thriller
Alan Silvestri and Robert Zemeckis, director and composer, have complimented each other brilliantly in the past on Forrest Gump, Death Becomes Her and Who Framed Roger Rabbit but it is here that Silvestri invokes some of Bernard Herrmann's hypnotic Hitchcock film scores to add greater depth and intensity to the telling of this story. What Lies Beneath is ultimately a finely crafted and intelligent story.
