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Domestic Disturbance
**1/2
Cinema Releases - January 11, 2002
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 12. 89
minutes. Directed by Harold Becker. Written by Lewis Colick; from a story
by Colick, William S. Comanor, Gary Drucker. Starring John Travolta, Vince
Vaughn, Teri Polo, Matt O'Leary, Steve Buscemi.
"Domestic Disturbance" features
John Travolta doing his extreme nice-guy routine, which involves a calm,
docile voice and a facial expression that mixes passiveness with straining,
giving the impression of someone half meek and half constipated. As the bad
guy, Vince Vaughn matches Travolta's exaggerated performance by veering between
the charm of Jimmy Stewart and the psychotic rage of Robert DeNiro in "This
Boy's Life". Steve Buscemi, also hamming it up, is more fun to watch than
either of the main players -- he has a supporting role as a comic-book scumbag
who goes around hunching, grimacing, constantly wearing sunglasses and asking
questions like "Say... you got any adult book stores in this
town?"
The movie is a thriller in which Travolta's ex-wife
marries Vaughn, who has fooled an entire seaside town into thinking that
he's a nice guy, when he's actually a violent criminal. Travolta's son, played
by Matt O'Leary, witnesses Vaughn commit a murder one night, but nobody believes
his story. Vaughn carries on acting like the perfect husband and stepfather,
Travolta and O'Leary keep trying to avoid his mind games and expose the
truth.
Of course the movie consists of a lot of scenes
where Travolta and O'Leary think they've got some evidence against Vaughn,
but end up finding that he can worm his way out of trouble. And of course
the town cops are so dumb and disbelieving that they don't run the basic
background checks or investigative techniques that would give credence to
the heroes' stories. And of course there's a showdown climax, whose only
surprise is the level of slasher-movie violence. The final chapter of "Domestic
Disturbance" includes arson, child abuse, shovel-beatings and electrocutions;
I'm amazed that the picture managed to get a 12 certificate, although
occasionally we can spot moments where four-letter words were obviously dubbed
over to get that rating, and we smile at the cheesiness.
The director was Harold Becker, who has in previous
years made wonderful movies "The Onion Field" and "Sea of Love". Becker has
had so much experience that he can nap during takes and still deliver slick
filmmaking, so although he brings no passion to "Domestic Disturbance", he
does give it an easy gloss. This is not a good movie, but it's watchable
exploitation -- the kind of disposable junk that would be worth catching
on TV, and chuckling at.
COPYRIGHT©
2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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