Hey everyone welcome back and Happy Thanksgiving so today we take a look at Don’t Say a Word. What….it’s got Thanksgiving in it, there’s a parade, turkey, and……other stuff. This film totally counts as a Thanksgiving film right….right SOMEONE AGREE WITH ME DAMN IT!
We open in Williamsburg, Brooklyn 1991 where five thieves are waiting outside of a bank for a certain item to arrive via armored truck. After the armored truck leaves the five thieves immediately make their move. They have the bank completely held up rather easily and two of the thieves Patrick Koster (played by Sean Bean) and Russel Maddox(played by Shawn Doyle) head straight to the vault. These guys should be thankful that they’re not in The Dark Knight otherwise they might get really screwed if a bunch of bank tellers came at them with shotguns. They’ve search for a specific safety deposit box and acquired the item they came for; a rare $10 million red gem. Russel puts the gem in the bag and gives it to Patrick; all five thieves leave the bank, split up to two groups and make their escape. As Patrick and his group are driving away he looks into the bag to find the gem not inside but just a regular jewelry. Apparently Russel made a switch back at the bank and he and his accomplice are now escaping with the gem. Cut to ten years later we’re introduced to a Dr. Nathan R. Conrad (played by Michael Douglas) who is a prominent child psychiatrist. After he calls his wife Aggie Conrad (played by Famke Janssen)(who is bedridden due to her broken leg) and his daughter Jessie Conrad (played by Skye McCole Bartusiak) he gets a page and heads to the Bridgeview Psychiatric Hospital. There he meets up with a Dr. Louis Sachs (played by Oliver Platt) who asks Nathan to examine one of his patients. An eighteen year old girl who’s been suffering Post Traumatic Stress and other mental disorders after witnessing her father’s death at age 8. And for the past ten years hasn’t been violent until now. Nathan refuses at first but Sachs convinces him to help her because otherwise she’ll be shipped off to another facility to be chained up for life. Nathan finally agrees and goes off to see the girl Elisabeth Burrows (played by Brittany Murphy). After a small examination Nathan concludes that there’s more to her than Sachs is telling. Elisabeth finally speaks before Nathan leaves the room stating “You want what they want”. Nathan asked her who’s they she’s referring to but she keeps replying “I’ll never tell” so he leaves, heading home. Cut to an old lady’s apartment as she prepares an evening snack until she hears a noise at the door. She goes to take a look only to see the locks on the door being picked from the outside. The door swings open to reveal that it’s Patrick and the two other thieves Dolen (played by Guy Torry) and Max (played by Conrad Goode). The old lady is killed by Max off screen while Patrick and Dolen setup shop. Evil bastards. Later we cut to a crime scene near bridge where we’re introduced to a detective Sandra Cassidy (played by Jennifer Esposito). Sandra checks on a dead body of an unidentified young woman apparently had been tied up judging by the marks on her wrists.
The next morning is Thanksgiving and Nathan is making breakfast; after serving Aggie her breakfast he goes to wake up Jessie but she’s not in her room. Nathan goes looking for her all over the apartment but hasn’t found her. He gets rather worry and was about to go outside but notices on the door that the chain lock has been cut. Nathan indicates that someone may have broken in and abducted Jessie; as he about to call the police his call is intercepted by Patrick. He tells Nathan that they have Jessie and will kill her if he calls the police or tells anyone. Patrick then tells him that he will be watched no matter where he goes. Nathan is informed that his patient Elisabeth has a six digit number buried in her mind and Patrick wants him to get that number from her. Nathan has until 5PM today to get Elisabeth to give him the number otherwise Patrick will kill Jessie. Having no choice Nathan complies and heads back to Bridgeview. On his way to Bridgeview he gets blocked off by a parade but was able to get a police escort all the way to the hospital. While that’s going on Nathan is being followed by one of Patrick men. Nathan gets a call from Patrick on a cellphone that was planted in the car admiring him of what he just did. Nathan asks about the context of these numbers but Patrick response that Elisabeth knows. Nathan is not so sure if he can get her to remember these numbers on a short time limit especially given her ten years of PTS but Patrick believe he can. At Bridgeview Nathan goes into Sachs’ office going through a master file on Elisabeth until Sachs shows up. Nathan explains that she’s overlaying basically she’s been mimics symptoms of other patients a “copycat schizophrenic baby” as he puts it making her virtually unreadable by other doctors. Now her PTS is very real with her father’s and the belief that someone is after her; apparently she wants to be institutionalized to stay hidden…safe. Nathan goes to talk Elisabeth again this time she’s a bit more talkative. He gives her some of Jessie’s things including a doll which Elisabeth takes interest to. While they are talking it turns out her room is wired by Patrick and his men and is now listening in. Nathan asks her about the day her father died but Elisabeth has a breakdown screaming at Nathan to leave and he does. Cut to Nathan puking in the restroom feeling defeated that he may lose his daughter. After getting a call from Patrick he looks through Elisabeth’s files more closely and finds a newspaper clipping about a little girl found wondering on Hart Island. Elisabeth was that little girl who was on the island the same day her father died. Nathan tries talking to her again; he goes on about Jessie until Elisabeth asked about her. He tells that she’s been taken by the people who are after Elisabeth and that not only he’s here to help her but needs her help. Nathan tries to persuade Elisabeth to tell him the numbers but she continues to be evasive. Nathan starts to pressure her when asking what these numbers are for; a phone number, an address, an account, a code but Elisabeth lashes out at him. Nathan has a hold of her calming her down.
A little bit later Elisabeth gets flashbacks of her and her father on Thanksgiving; the father in question is revealed to be Russel the same guy who stolen the gem from Patrick. Outside of Elisabeth’s room Nathan is approached by Sachs with a syringe fill with 500 milligrams of sodium amytal. Nathan protests to use this method on Elisabeth but Sachs insists that she may be more cooperative this way. They’re interrupted by phone call coming from Sachs which Nathan recognizes the ring tone. Sachs hesitates to answer the phone but Nathan tells him to answer. Sachs pulls out the phone from his pocket it’s the same phone that Nathan has revealing that Sachs is under Patrick’s forceful employed. Nathan snatches the syringe and places it towards Sachs’ neck telling him to response to Patrick that everything is OK and he’s going to plan b; Sachs complies. After Sachs hangs up the phone Nathan demands why he’s doing this and Sachs replies that Patrick has his girlfriend Sarah. He says Patrick will kill her if he doesn’t get this number for him. Sachs is being called to his office to talk to a cop; Nathan tells him to keep his cool and try to get rid of the cop. Sachs goes to his office where detective Sandra is waiting for him. She asks a few questions about a young woman named Sarah (the dead woman at the morgue and Sachs’ girlfriend). He denies even knowing Sarah at all until Sandra shows him pictures of her including a picture of her on a slab at the morgue. Sachs is shocked that she’s dead and that Patrick had lied to him. Sandra continues to question Sachs showing profile pictures of Patrick and the other thieves. Still in shock and angry Sachs tells her that he and Patrick had a deal to get the number before 5PM and he’ll let Sarah go. But apparently Sachs didn’t know that Sarah was already dead. We’re cutting back to the thieves but I want to summarize something first in early scenes we see Jessie talking to one of the thieves Max. Eventually Max slowly warms up to Jessie over time; meanwhile she scoops out the room she’s in realizing they’re in an apartment below her parents’. This gives her an idea to sing a song to Max unnoticed to him that Aggie can hear her from a vent next to her bed. Unfortunately Patrick can hear Jessie via surveillance cameras in Nathan’s and Aggie’s room and runs into the bed room to stop her. Realizing where Jessie is and is OK, Aggie tries to play dumb in case she’s being watched but doesn’t work as Patrick can tell that she knows. With no choice the thieves leave the apartment taking Jessie with them. Patrick orders Dolen to go kill Aggie as she tries to break off her leg brace after she hears Jessie screaming. Back at Bridgeview Nathan sets he plan of getting Elisabeth out in motion; he’s stopped at the security area being refused to let out Elisabeth. He incapacitates the security guard with a syringe and then leaves the hospital. While at the same time Sandra tries to catch up with Nathan before he left the hospital but missed and puts out an APB.
Elisabeth gets another flashback this time of her father hiding the gem in her doll. Back at Nathan’s place Dolen enters the apartment looking for Aggie but gets a crutch to the face. A little bit later Aggie makes it to the apartment below to find it complete abandoned; she continues to look around finding the dead body of the old lady. She gets attacked from behind by Dolen as she was about to call the police. Aggie tries to struggle away from Dolen but he keeps her completely overpowered. He starts to strangle her as she continues struggling to fight back. Aggie manages to grab a blunt object and hits him upside the head. He quickly recovers and about to kill her but Aggie pulls out a rod from her leg cast and stabs Dolen dead. Nathan and Elisabeth arrive near Chinatown where she lives with her father; Elisabeth gets a flashback of her and her father walking down the street until they’re spotted by Patrick and his gang. The flashback continues with Elisabeth and her father running away as Patrick and the others give chase. Cut to real time Nathan and Elisabeth head down to a subway station where in the flashback she and her father run down into the same subway station. Continuing with the flashback Elisabeth is told by her father to hide behind a pillar as she father is caught by Patrick and the others. Continuing with the flashback Elisabeth watches as her father being threaten to tell Patrick where the gem is but doesn’t tell him. Patrick gets mad and pushes her father on the subway tracks. Her father tries to get off the tracks but gets run over by an oncoming train as when cut to real time with Elisabeth screaming over the event. Nathan asks her what did Patrick want and she replies her doll which the gem is inside of. Elisabeth goes to a map and point to where her doll is which is on Hart Island where she was found. Later Patrick calls Nathan on his progress; he tells Patrick he got the number but wants to give it to him in person. Patrick refuses but Nathan insist that they should meet if he wants the number; leaving Patrick no choice to agree. Nathan and Elisabeth arrive at a pier and commandeer a boat to Hart Island.
After they arrive they head to Potter’s Field cemetery where they meet up Patrick and the other. They both pieced together that the number has to be a location to a grave site so it’s up to Nathan to find out which one with Elisabeth’s help. Back on the mainland Sandra arrives at the pier where Nathan commandeers the boat out to Hart Island so she immediately follows suit. Back on the island Nathan performs one last session Elisabeth which leads to another flashback of her on a ferry boat where her father is being transported. A couple of ferrymen find her trying to open her father’s casket to put her doll inside. They help her to open it up for to do so and closed it back up. The flashback continues at the grave site on Hart Island where her father is being buried as she watches. The flashback ends as we cut to real time when Elisabeth starts writing the number she saw on her father’s casket 815508. So finally with the number in hand all except for Elisabeth and Jessie head off to the grave site; once there they dug open the casket and obtain the gem. All seems well however, Patrick goes back on his word and order Max to kill Nathan. As max is about to shoot Nathan he quickly grabs a shovel knocks the gun out of Max’s hand and a fight breaks out. Nathan holds up against Max until he’s eventually overpowered; Max puts him a bear hug but Nathan gets loose by slamming dirt on Max’s eyes. Nathan is about to kill him but hesitates so Patrick shoots Max dead on spot. Meanwhile Sandra hears the gunshots and finds them at the grave site. Patrick is about to shoot Nathan but is stopped by Sandra; Patrick’s last lackey is about to shoot her but she guns him down first. Patrick draws his gun on Sandra and shoots her but she only gets wounded. Nathan attacks Patrick knocking the gun out of his hand; Nathan quickly gets the gun and has Patrick at gunpoint. Nathan ask him was it all worth it for one gem and Patrick answers yes. Nathan throws the gem in a trench then kicks Patrick into the trench; he gets a spare gun off Max and shoots at Nathan. Nathan sets off a winch that drops some lumber on Patrick but he moves out of the way. However, this causes the trench to start collapsing burying Patrick alive. The film ends with Nathan finally reunited with Jessie along with Aggie; Sandra is taken to the hospital and Elisabeth is free from this 10 year nightmare.
My Final Verdict: I find this film more of a popcorn flick something to just shut off your brain sit back and watch it. The story feels down to earth in its execution and gets rather intense at most parts. The biggest positive from this film is Brittany Murphy’s performance; I’ve barely follow her career and performance but here she is just phenomenal. She plays such a convincing character of Elisabeth it’s downright terrifying and not just because of the character’s insanity. Hell when I think about when Elisabeth goes crazy she’s still somewhat rational whereas Bella Swan’s rationality just crawls off died before and after she goes psychotically obsessed with Edward Cullen. It’s a real shame that Brittany Murphy passed away in 2009 soon after she gained recognition in her career. And just to throw this out it’s nice to see Famke Janssen and Sean Bean in the same film again since GoldenEye. I really don’t have a joke there just thought it was something you should know.
The year is almost up but there are still a few films to review stay tuned next time as we look into Bones…..no not the one with David Boreanaz the horror film one… You know the one with Snoop Dogg……this film might get stupid.
