NEW Hide & Seek (DVD)

Once again, I find myself completely enamored with a film that many viewers obviously didn't like. I'm at a loss to explain others' displeasure, as I found Hide and Seek to be an exemplary film with a wonderfully pervasive dark aura, oodles of suspense, a genuinely excellent script, standout performances by both Robert De Niro and young Dakota Fanning, and an ending with plenty of shock value that also manages to play itself out well up through the very end. It's going to be hard to really explain my take on the excellence of this film, though, because it just won't do to give future viewers more than a rudimentary glimpse at the basic story. Maybe those who disliked the film knew too much going in; such knowledge would rob Hide and Seek of most of its dramatic power.

De Niro is always good; when you sit and watch the guy work, it's hard to call anyone else in Hollywood a real actor - and the character he played had to have such a great actor in order to make this film be all it could be. It also needed a great child actress, and Dakota Fanning may well be the best up and coming actress out there. She more than holds her own against De Niro, basically giving an adult performance as Emily, a young girl haunted by the death of her mother. After finding his wife dead in the bathtub, David Calloway (De Niro) decides to move with his daughter to a quiet country house outside the Big City. Emily is having a rough time dealing with the trauma of her mother's death, and he thinks she needs a brand new start, free of the bad memories haunting her. Their new, quiet life proves to be less than ideal - and increasingly downright unhealthy. The townsfolk they interact with are just plain weird, Emily becomes increasingly withdrawn, and David, despite the fact that he's a well-established psychologist, seems at a loss as to how to help his little girl. Things take an increasingly dark turn after Emily establishes a friendship with Charley. She seems to be displacing her own negative feelings through an imaginary friend, but the whole Charley situation eventually gets out of hand - and in a pretty major way.

Like a lot of psychological suspense thrillers, the film tends to move fairly slowly early on. It's important that we get to know these characters as deeply as we can before the dramatic part of the story really heats up. Fanning really is an experienced adult actress in a child's body, and it's amazing to watch her develop her character (both physically and emotionally) into an increasingly disturbed, haunted child. The supporting cast is excellent, each one of them contributing greatly to the sense of wrongness that seems to hold the whole community in its dark grip. All of these things combine to make the film's conclusion pay off big time, at least in my opinion (although there was one little illogical issue that bothered me somewhat). Hide and Seek, once all is said and done, clearly makes perfect sense, and I for one consider it a most impressive psychological thriller.

Fanning is brilliant in her role as a haunted young girl. DeNiro, though, is all wrong for the part of her father. Not because he can't act, but because these days he can't keep from impersonating himself - a condition afflicting most established stars. It's kept in check throughout most of the picture, but once the disappointing ending is set into motion his hammy performance summons to mind Analyze That, Meet the Parents, etc., completely killing the tension built early on. Just an average thriller overall.

Let me cut to the chase. This film did not, at all, meet my expectations. The trailers lead one to believe that it is a film with supernatural overtones, but it turns out to be something else all together. The story line seems simple on its face. Alison Callaway (Amy Irving), a wife and loving mother, unexpectedly decides to slit her wrist in the bathtub one night, killing herself. Her husband, psychologist David Callaway, comes upon her lifeless body, and so does their beloved daughter, Emily (Dakota Fanning). Emily goes into shock and comes under the care of a therapist named Katherine (Famke Janssen).

Sometime later, when Emily's condition seemingly improves, her father then decides to leave New York City, where they live, and relocate to a small upstate town. No sooner do they move there, they meet the real estate agent and the town's sheriff, both of whom seem a tad peculiar. Moreover, there appears to be something not quite right with the couple next door, especially the husband. When Emily starts talking about an ostensibly imaginary friend named Charlie, the viewer knows that something is afoot. When David develops a new friend of his own, Elizabeth (Elizabeth Shue), trouble lies ahead, as Emily exhibits bizarre behavior towards her, as well as towards Elizabeth's young niece who is trying to befriend her.

As Charlie appears to be becoming an ever present and ominous entity in their lives, and Emily's odd behavior continues unabated, David remains the most kind, concerned, and understanding of fathers. He contacts Emily's therapist Katherine, who is very concerned about the eccentric behavior Emily is exhibiting. Meanwhile, the male neighbor interjects himself into the picture in a seemingly ominous way. So, David, who is also having flashbacks of events involving his wife, appears to have his hands full on the home front. By the time things start to go totally askew, the viewer can pretty much guess what the final denouement will be.

Despite its great cast and excellent performances, the script is weak and leaves a lot to be desired. It cheats the viewer with its subplots that go nowhere and are used merely to create red herrings for the sake of creating them. The film ends up being no more than total nonsense. Ari Schlossberg, the screenwriter, has made the mistake of underestimating the intelligence of the average viewer who would go to see a film starring Robert De Niro. Not even De Niro's otherwise fine performance can elevate this film to more than what it is, which is a far cry from what it promised in its trailers.

This is not a film worth adding to one's personal collection. This is a film that is worth a rental, when you have nothing better to do.