Don't Say a Word

Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox film/short descriptionTemplate:Template other Don't Say a Word is a 2001 American psychological thriller film starring Michael Douglas, Sean Bean, Brittany Murphy, Guy Torry, Jennifer Esposito, Famke Janssen, Skye McCole Bartusiak and Oliver Platt based on the novel Don't Say a Word by Andrew Klavan. It was directed by Gary Fleder and written by Anthony Peckham and Patrick Smith Kelly.

The daughter of psychiatrist Nathan Conrad is kidnapped to force him to break through to Elisabeth Burrows, a PTSD-afflicted young woman, as the abductor demands she reveal a secret number to recover something very valuable.

It was released by 20th Century Fox on September 28, 2001, receiving negative reviews from critics and grossing $100 million against its $50 million budget.

Plot

In 1991, a gang of thieves steals a rare $10-million gem, but, in the process, two of them double-cross their leader, Patrick Koster, and take off with the precious stone.

Ten years later, on the day before Thanksgiving, prominent Manhattan private practice child psychiatrist, Dr. Nathan R. Conrad, is invited by his friend and former colleague, Dr. Louis Sachs, to examine a "disturbed" young lady named Elisabeth Burrows at the state sanatorium.

Having been released from prison two weeks earlier, Patrick and the remaining gang members break into an apartment which overlooks Nathan's apartment, where he lives with his wife Aggie and their 8-year-old daughter Jessie. Nathan is informed by Patrick that Elisabeth is only pretending to be insane to hide in the institution from this gang that is searching for the gem.

That evening, Patrick kidnaps Jessie as a means of forcing Nathan to acquire a six-digit number from Elisabeth's memory. As Nathan visits Elisabeth, she is reluctant at first, but he gains her trust laterTemplate:Sndespecially when he reveals the situation with Jessie.

Sachs admits to Nathan that the gang who kidnapped Jessie also kidnapped his girlfriend to force him to acquire the number from Elisabeth. He is then visited by Detective Sandra Cassidy, who reveals to him that his girlfriend has been found dead. Meanwhile, Aggie hears Jessie's voice and realizes the kidnappers are located in the nearby apartment. They send one of them to kill Aggie while the others escape with Jessie, but she sets an ambush and kills him.

After Nathan takes Elisabeth out of the sanatorium, she remembers certain events regarding the gang. It is revealed that Elisabeth's father was the gang member who double crossed the others and kept the gem. However, other members of the gang later found him and ordered him to reveal where he had hidden it, subsequently pushing him in front of a subway train right in front of his daughter (Elisabeth) when she was a little girl.

The gang members were arrested immediately, and Elisabeth escaped with her doll in which the gem was hidden. She also remembers that the required number, 815508, is her father's grave number at Hart Island and that her doll is placed beside him in the coffin. She explains that she had stowed away on a boat that was taking her father's coffin for burial in Potter's field on the island, where the gravediggers put the doll, named Mischka, inside.

Nathan and Elisabeth steal a boat to reach Hart Island. The gang members track them down and demand that Nathan give them the number they want. Elisabeth reveals the number and Patrick orders his companion to exhume her father's coffin after releasing Jessie. He finds the doll and the gem hidden inside it.

Before Patrick can kill Nathan and Elisabeth, Cassidy arrives. Patrick's companion is shot by the officer, but Patrick manages to wound her. Taking advantage of the confusion, Nathan takes the gem from him and throws it into an open mass grave. He kicks Patrick into it, and then triggers a collapse of its sides, filling the grave with dirt and burying him alive. Nathan reunites with Aggie and Jessie, thanks Cassidy, and invites Elisabeth to live with them.

Production

In September 2000, it was announced Regency Enterprises and 20th Century Fox would commence production on an adaptation of Don't Say a Word by Andrew Klavan with Gary Fleder set to direct and Michael Douglas to star.

An earlier version of the script did not feature the investigation side-plot set around Detective Sandra Cassidy. Although the film is entirely set in New York, shooting took place in winter 2000 in both New York and Toronto. Due to the film's release nearly three weeks after the September 11 attacks, the filmmakers contemplated delaying the movie, but ultimately decided against it. However, they cut out and replaced shots of the World Trade Center from the edit, such as the opening shot, which now instead shows Brooklyn.

Soundtrack

The film's musical score was composed by Mark Isham and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony. The soundtrack was released on CD from Varèse Sarabande that contains eight score selections from various scenes, including Heist, Kidnapped and the horrific events at Subway.

Reception

Critical response

Don't Say a Word received negative reviews from critics. Template:RT prose Template:MC film Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two and a half stars out of four, deeming that "the movie as a whole looks and occasionally plays better than it is" and praising Gary Fleder's "poetic visual touch" as well as Brittany Murphy's and Sky McCole Bartusiak's performances. Conversely, in his review for Empire, Kim Newman found the film bland and thought it "rarely manages to make you forget its blatant silliness". He did however praise the female cast, in particular Famke Janssen.

Box office

The film earned over $100 million worldwide against a budget of $50 million.

External links

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