DVD Movie Review: What Lies Beneath

Length:126 minutes.

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Special Features on the DVD:

• Widescreen, anamorphic format.
• Commentary by director Robert Zemeckis.
• Production notes and the film’s trailer.

Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer are at their charismatic best in What Lies Beneath, a supernatural thriller with several moments that were scary enough to make me jump while sitting on my sofa watching it. The film is part ghost story, part murder mystery, and the less you know about the plot before seeing it, the more you’ll enjoy it. I promise not to spoil things for you here, but be warned: Don’t watch the theatrical trailer on the DVD before watching the movie since it gives away too much!

The story revolves around Claire (Pfeiffer), a woman who is happily married to the handsome Norman Spencer (Ford), a workaholic research geneticist. Claire is pleased with the charming lakeside house in Vermont that they have recently moved into, but she is also a little saddened that the time has come to see her only child, a daughter by a previous marriage, off to college. And soon Claire’s life starts to completely unravel.

Things eventually begin to happen around the house that make Claire uneasy: doors open and close by themselves, the family dog barks at things that are invisible, and the bathtub fills itself to the brim. And staring into the water in that bathtub, Claire thinks she sees the ghostly apparition of what could be a younger woman who has an eerie resemblance to Claire herself.

But as the story unfolds, we also come to realize that Claire may be psychologically unstable. We learn, for example, that only a year earlier she was driving alone and wrapped her car around a tree in what might have been a suicide attempt. So it’s possible that all the weird goings-on at the house may only be happening in Claire’s mind.

I don’t think I should tell you anything further about Claire and Norman Spencer since, unlike the people who ran the advertising campaign for the film, I’d rather not spoil your enjoyment of it. But there is another character in the movie worth mentioning, namely Claire’s recently divorced best friend Jody. Nicely played by Diana Scarwid, Jody’s primary function in the film is to occasionally lighten the mood temporarily. For instance, when Claire compliments Jody on her impressive new automobile, Jody replies flippantly, "The wonderful thing about alimony: you lose a husband, you get a car!"

I am recommending What Lies Beneath as a reasonably entertaining movie to watch at home, but I hasten to add that with stars of the magnitude of Ford and Pfeiffer, coupled with the fact that the film was directed by Oscar-winner Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Contact), I somehow expected more than was actually delivered. One of the problems, I think, is that What Lies Beneath plays like a cross between The Sixth Sense and Psycho with a little Rear Window thrown in, but What Lies Beneath is simply not as good any of those films. Still, What Lies Beneath is an extremely well-crafted movie that definitely does have its moments, and if you can forget all about Alfred Hitchcock and just accept this film for what it is, I think you’ll probably have a pretty good time.