A slick, rerouted TV movie at best.
Domestic Disturbance (2001)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:97
Fresh:23
Rotten:74
Average Rating:4/10
Consensus: Well-made but extremely predictable, Domestic Disturbance is an average thriller that may work better on TV.
Runtime: 89 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: John Travolta is a simple guy named Frank, a recovering alcoholic struggling to maintain the family shipbuilding business his great grandfather started. Now that his ex-wife Susan (Teri Polo)... John Travolta is a simple guy named Frank, a recovering alcoholic struggling to maintain the family shipbuilding business his great grandfather started. Now that his ex-wife Susan (Teri Polo) divorced him, his son Danny (Matt O'Leary) is constantly at the police station for one problem or another. So when Susan marries charming Rick (Vince Vaughn), Frank thinks he will provide the financial stability that Danny needs to clean up his act. Then, a mysterious Ray (Steve Buscemi) rolls into town and claims to be an old friend of Rick's. But Rick tells a different story, making Frank wary of them both. When Ray suddenly disappears, Danny claims that he witnessed Rick murder him. Susan thinks it's just another one of Danny's lies, but Frank isn't so sure. He investigates Rick's background and finds that Rick isn't at all what he appears to be. Director Harold Becker (SEA OF LOVE) delivers thrills and melodrama and the film is like a dreaming dog--quietly still, punctured by jolts of movement. Vaughn is subtly menacing and Travolta is as affable as a retriever, but it's Buscemi who really lights up the screen with a sleazy wariness that is hilarious. [More]
Starring: John Travolta, Vince Vaughn, Teri Polo, Steve Buscemi
Starring: John Travolta, Vince Vaughn, Teri Polo, Steve Buscemi, Matthew O'Leary
Director: Harold Becker
Director: Harold Becker
Screenwriter: Lewis Colick
Producer: Donald DeLine, Jonathan Krane
Composer: Mark Mancina
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Reviews for Domestic Disturbance
There are some nifty Hitchcock-style opening credits, but after that, it's downhill.
Domestic Disturbance will be of interest only to lip readers, able to determine how many nasty F words have been to changed to 'freak' and 'fool.'
A sterile, hollow thriller bereft of any emotion -- the cinematic equivalent of a math problem, which doesn't make it any less contemptible.
Seems to have gone through an extensive editing process on its way to the big screen.
If the premise of Domestic Disturbance interests you at all, you're better off renting 1987's The Stepfather ... That film was everything Domestic Disturbance is not: taut, suspenseful, unpredictable, and not the slightest bit condescending.
Thanks to that vapid script, it's about as scary, and believable, as a little boy yelling 'wolf.'
Would barely have made a decent Movie-of-the-Week twenty years ago...even the title is generic.
Domestic Disturbance features John Travolta's twinkly-eyed Phenomenon persona and Vince Vaughn and Teri Polo's shared "I might be a cunning polymer" persona.
You might forget Disturbance ever existed, but it's a fun ride while it lasts.
Cross 1949's "The Window" with 1987's "The Stepfather," plus a small dash of "Message in a Bottle" and you've got "Domestic Disturbance."
The end result is still probably good enough to satisfy audiences in need of a decent distraction on the home front.
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