We
are well into the midwinter “thriller” season – that part of the film
going
calendar when the major aim of nine out of 10 films is to scare you
silly, with
little demand for deep thought on the viewer’s part.
With so many films clamoring for
audience attention, it’s hard to rise above the throng, but Hide
and Seek
manages to stand out, mostly thanks to an unusually seasoned cast. Even
the
youngest cast member, 10-year-old Dakota Fanning, is a veteran of a
dozen or so
major films and numerous TV guest spots.
Fanning plays Emily Callaway, a
young girl whose mother has apparently committed suicide.
Witnessing the discovery of her mother’s body
so traumatizes her that her psychologist father (Robert DeNiro) decides
to take
her to a new home in the country, away from the memories of their New York home.
Anyone familiar with this genre will
immediately recognize this as a bad mistake.
In their upstate retreat, Emily’s withdrawal from the world
only becomes
more severe. She spends her time sitting
on her bed, staring into space, mutilating dolls, and talking about her
new
friend, the apparently invisible “Charlie.”
For much of the film, she appears emotionally numb, an
affectless
cipher.
Fanning’s
large, luminous eyes and pale
face make her the ideal physical embodiment of this kind of spooky
child, and
her instincts in yet another strong role are sure.
She is the standout child star of her
generation – is she really only 10?
Although he is supposedly an
outstanding psychologist, her father has no clue how to handle his
daughter’s
trauma, and approaches her more as his patient than his daughter. The part calls for DeNiro, too, to be more
emotionally subdued for much of the film than we are accustomed to
seeing him. Since
most of the focus is on the father and daughter, their emotional
emptiness initially
slows the film down.
As “Charlie’s” actions become more
threatening, however, the pace of the action picks up, along with the
body
count – Charlie, it seems, is a cold-blooded killer.
We remain in the dark as to “Charlie’s” true
nature until very near the end – is he the somewhat creepy neighbor? A
ghost? A
supernatural manifestation of Emily’s anger?
Emily herself?
The answer to Charlie’s identity,
when it comes, is obvious enough, but the plot is so well executed, the
questions about Charlie so well kept in play, that the unveiling still
caught
me off guard. With Charlie’s unmasking,
the formerly restrained actors let loose an emotional torrent, while
the plot
focus switches to whether he can be stopped before everyone ends up
dead.
DeNiro and Fanning carry most of the
responsibility for keeping viewers engaged, but they get support from
that
experienced cast, including Amy Irving in a small role as the mother,
Famke Janssen
(X-Men) as Dr. Callaway’s protégé (though her
character, and their
relationship, remain frustratingly undeveloped), and Elizabeth Shue as
Callaway’s new love interest.
The casting exposes a significant
flaw in the movie, however. Shue and
Janssen,
both 20 years younger than DeNiro, are too young to be convincingly
attracted
to the world-weary Callaway. Although DeNiro is a great actor, he is
too old
for this part; he looks (and acts) more like Emily’s grandfather than
her
father, and never convincingly clicks as a parent to Fanning.