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 Domestic
Disturbance
 
NEW
Emily Blunt's Interview w/Vince Vaughn
Starring:
John Travolta, Vince Vaughn, Teri Polo, Matthew O'Leary, Steve
Buscemi
Directed by: Harold Becker
Rated: PG-13
Domestic Disturbance has too clever a title don't you think?
Never a good sign, but still I went in with a positive attitude
and was actually surprised at the quality of the film. Until the
end that is, when the movie took poor Vince Vaughn and reduced
him to a B rate villain with a pinch of type casting, and a whole
heaping helping of that oh-so-popular bowl of nonsensical happenings
stew we are continually being fed by modern movie makers. The
film gave itself the " when smart people suddenly do stupid
things" flu or better yet a real bad case of the "as
if" syndrome real early on.
DD's
story goes...Frank (John " extra-extra big tee" Travolta)
is getting on with his life. His ex-wife is remarrying and his
son's heading into teenage angst land. The boy, Danny, now twelve,
is in and out of trouble, tiny insignificant stuff but he's managed
to get a reputation as a liar and a bit of a  brat.
Normal middle-class stuff so far.
Frank's
ex-wife and Danny's mom, Susan (Teri Polo — a recent graduate
of the Nicholas Cage School of Acting motto: One Expression
= All Expressions) is in love with their
town's new hero, and rich guy come lately Rick (Vince - don't
be sore, call Emily Blunt at 1-866-Em-Blunt- Vaughn). Rick's come
to town bringing new hope to a sagging economy and a secret up
his sleeve or in his file if you will. But the town sees only
that he's loaded, charming, tall and, as one pubescent lily acknowledged,
"he's a fox." So you know he's going psycho real soon
(no pun intended).
On
the day of his charming wedding to blissfully blind Susan, an
old friend of Rick's pays him a visit. This friend, Ray (Steve
"barracuda teeth" Buscemi) is a sneaky looking fellow,
and Frank, who's also a guest at the wedding, doesn't miss the
fact that Rick's none to pleased at his "old business partner"
showing up...
When
Frank and Susan's boy-in-perpetual-trouble Danny, (Matthew O'Leary)
claims to have witnessed Rick, now his his new step dad, murder
a man and dispose of his body, like it was an Arizona Diamondbacks
to win bookie receipt, things are starting to get creepy.
Of
course Danny runs straight to his father and the police with the
news like any of us would...but remember Danny's got a bad rep
in town for lying, and he's not to happy about the new BABY Rick
and his mother have created...Rick's as cool as an autographed
Byung-Hyun Kim ball on Ebay towards the kid and lets him know
he's none to pleased with the tall tales he's been telling!
Will
Frank believe his son's story, or the handsome new stranger who's
just married his ex-wife theory that the boy's just angry at the
world right now? What do you think...
 Admittedly,
Vin's a big old smit here at Blunt Review. He's super swell on
the retina and like a sesame bagel that's been toasted till crisp
in the broiler of love and smeared all over with rich full cream
butter that's running gently down his manly torso (that and his
shoulders appear to be four feet across...slurp). BUT that
affection aside, the man needs to tap into his obvious talents.
He's not just a handsome face and physique so hot he's banned
from within a hundred yards of a ice skating rink. Maybe the key
to his theatrical his future requires simply to switch agents
and take only well written villains? I liked his Psycho
and defend it to this day, loved Clay Pigeons,
enjoyed his non-villian role in The Cell,
and I'm not alone in my love of his Made
and Swinger characters, but here all I can say is ... this
film turns into la poo.
John
Travolta is just adorable as of late; happiness and apparently,
croissants, suite the lad. He's a full-figure boy now- NOT as
large as say Steven Seagal (gawd forbid), but the boy's definitely
"husky." He too should read the script all the way to
the end, because his character got even more ridiculous than Vin's
carnival brand middle-class- bad- guy- with- a- dark-and-secret-
past he'll kill to protect ( a past that can be found, handy picture
included, on a search engine in about three clicks...according
to the screenwriter).
The
young man playing Danny, Matthew O'Leary, was very good. Pass
the ortho-novum, he reminded all of us what kids can really
be like when you start to get all fluffy and depressed that you
never spawned. I'm looking forward to his next work.
Teri
Polo didn't have much here it was all about the boyz, but what
she did have was delivered like a tofu taco from a North Hollywood
vegan taco joint I know; flat and tasteless. Even when
Teri's Susan had to kiss Vaughn's Rick she was chilly...maybe
she's a clamdigger. I'm kidding. But, I didn't buy their relationship
for a nano-second.
Steve Buscemi waltzed through his
role and lit up the screen every time he appeared...which was
too brief.
It's really the last thirty minutes that brought on that rancid
Kielbasa sausage in the third draw from a month ago taste in your
mouth. DD's story was well meaning. Sure, we were fed all
the important bits of info like we were still infants not ready
for solids, but it is a studio thriller - you don't expect Memento
do you? But the filmmakers seemed to rush the end and throw in
as many bad thriller movie clichés as they could muster.
It's a good rental...maybe.
Snack
recommendation: Cheeseburger, fries and a diet coke
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