Domestic Disturbance Review

Domestic Disturbance
Frank's ex-wife is about to marry a rich industrialist called Rick. His son, Danny, doesn't like Rick, and hides in his car one night when he goes on a business trip. There, he witnesses Rick commit murder - but with a history of lying, the only person who will believe him is Frank, who does some investigation of his own.

by Bob McCabe |
Published on
Release Date:

11 Jan 2002

Running Time:

90 minutes

Certificate:

12

Original Title:

Domestic Disturbance

John Travolta's increasingly erratic career path continues to be, well, erratic with Becker's latest cod-Hitchcock thriller. In short, it gets the domestic right, then woefully falls apart courtesy of the disturbance.

Travolta is a boat-building father whose ex-wife is about to marry Vaughn, the new big cheese in town. That is, until his son (Matt O'Leary) spies his stepdad-to-be kill an old colleague. But he's a troubled kid, known to lie – who will believe him?

Becker's film manages to capture very well that sense of genuine parental paranoia when some unknown quantity moves into the family home, and this is where Travolta delivers the goods with his usual panache. Then the movie decides to turn itself into a Hitchcock parody, complete with faux-Bernard Herrmann score. Big mistake.

The performances are decent, but the premise is only so-so, and Becker's attempts to elevate the film backfire.
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