Hide and Seek (2005)
- written February 2005
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Emily’s mom has committed suicide and for the well-being of both, her dad moves them out to the countryside to get away from everything. But Emily loss of her best friend changes when a new best friend shows up, Charlie. But things soon get out of hand for Emily because Charlie is very mean, very scary and unstoppable. It will take everything Emily and her daddy have, to fight off this mysterious evil.
Overall: I really was enjoying this film until the last 3rd of the film. It’s not necessarily the revelation of the truth but how early it shows up. It was right out of a Shymalan film too which made it look like cheating. But it’s how early the secret is giving away and how much longer the film keeps going which was the problem. The ending never fully gives you enough info on the neighbor or the cop. The other psychiatrist, Famke J., never fully has her character fleshed out with her relationship with Robert DeNiro. We know those 2 have a special relationship but never fully what it is, only that his wife cheated on him with some guy. Their relationship between husband and wife also seems glossed over. The film had a good plot but I fear much got left on the cutting room floor (or at least I hope that’s where it was and not completely missed in the first place). The film can be scary at times but is also quite slow too. I thought that Elizabeth Shue’s outfit was showing way too much cleavage in front of the child way too often. The extra room at the bottom of the house also went unexplained, as did the fact that the climax lasts about 30 minutes going from one location to another for just too long. The film had promise and hype. . . Spoilers . . . . . . . . So here are the 4 alternate endings. 1) Happy Ending: Same as above but picture shows the stick figure with only 1 head, indicating everything is alright; Given those endings, I’m very happy with the last 2. Emily in the asylum is a dark, creepy ending that still works for me. In indicates that people recognize Emily is not well and already seeking to avoid a repeat of the incidents at the house. I’m mixed on the scene in the closet though. Although Dakota Fanning does a nice job acting, the game itself seems a bit cheesy. The “happy ending” is totally out of place and sort of ruins what the whole film led up to. The “theatrical ending” is a little too fluffy. The ending with Emily in the closet, but not in the asylum also fails to address how psycho Emily has become. He did discuss the test screenings in which the audience didn’t completely get the reason Emily was in the closet but also added that #4 is being used in international versions of the film. But given the 5 possible, the ones with Emily in the asylum were just good enough to have made the film better. So, with that, let me address the deleted scenes. I think the most obvious example of a director being totally off-base with his audience was with the film "Willard." The director used the dvd as his “bully pulpit” to explain to the consumers why they were wrong and he was right. Both in that film and in this one, the directors still don’t get it. But here the director isn’t on his “high horse” but you can tell as he explains why “scenes didn’t work,” that they actually did...and he just couldn’t see the potential for his film. Now, I’m not saying the film would be perfect if he kept the scenes in because frankly, all my plot issues from above still were not addressed. But as the deleted scenes progressed you kept hearing the same phrases from the director: “less is more,” “no duplication,” “feels it said it all twice.” Well, I for one felt the theatrical film was short and frankly, didn’t explain itself enough. Sometimes, to really feel the impact of an idea, you need to repeat it. If you don’t, it’s quite possible the audience misread the importance of it the first time. We have on the DVD scenes involving Emily pretending to slit her wrists, the first time that Emily and her dad see the cave, the sheriff listening to an explanation on how to cure his fear of the dark, and finally a long scene involving dinner between Elizabeth Shue and DeNiro. Although I bought the explanation of...”why does daddy go on a long date when daughter is freaking out at home?”, it frankly explains the later scene showing how close the 2 of them got and the attraction between them. It could have been better had they added a tinge more to play off why DeNiro wasn’t worried but really, many of these scenes would have been nice touches to expand the film and create more cohesion. I just think the director couldn’t see his film objectively and no one really let him know why the film wasn’t working. I think they may have focused too much on the ending and not in wrapping loose plot veins up. Comparison: Fatal Attraction meets Secret Window |
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