In 1967's Wait Until Dark, Audrey Hepburn played a supercompetent blind lady who accidentally came into possession of some drugs which several factions of vicious crook were after, and, in a suspenseful finale, overcomes her handicap and sees off a maniacal baddie. Here, in a blindingly original scenario, Matlin plays a competent deaf lady who accidentally comes into possession of a valuable coin which several factions of vicious crook are after, and in a would-be suspenseful finale overcomes her handicap and sees off a maniacal baddie.
Matlin, a marathon runner, whom the film manages to get into many a tight leotard, is as charming and spunky as in her big hit, Children Of A Lesser God. Sweeney, an insomniac restaurateur who gets involved with Matlin and the intrigue when his journo best friend (McGinley) is mysteriously blown up, is a fine, if lightweight, leading man. On the baddie front, Sheen plays a corrupt, opera-loving cop with the film's biggest laugh line: "That's the worst Rigoletto I've ever seen."
Apart from stealing a whole plot, and poaching the runaround gag from Dustin Hoffman in Marathon Man, the choppy screenplay also features a return of many of your favourite plot devices of recent years: the corpse who isn't really dead; the valuable object hidden in a household device the heroine takes everywhere (a beeper); the hero's hobby which comes in useful for a burglary (he's an indoor mountain-climber); the villain who leaves vital evidence against him lying around where it can easily be found; and even the vitally secret information kept secret from the audience. On a scene to scene level, Hear No Evil is competent. But as directed by Greenwald, the man who gave you Olivia Newton-John in Xanadu, this is a frankly ridiculous thriller, occasionally elevated by acting above and beyond the call of the script.