Don't Say a Word (2001)

When the daughter of a psychiatrist is kidnapped, he's horrified to discover that the abductors' demand is that he break through to a post traumatic stress disorder suffering young woman who knows a secret...

Director:

Gary Fleder

Writers:

Andrew Klavan (novel), Anthony Peckham (screenplay)

Stars:

Michael Douglas, Sean Bean, Brittany Murphy

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Douglas	...	Nathan Conrad
Sean Bean	...	Patrick Koster
Brittany Murphy	...	Elisabeth Burrows
Skye McCole Bartusiak	...	Jessie Conrad
Guy Torry	...	Dolen
Jennifer Esposito	...	Sandra Cassidy
Shawn Doyle	...	Russel Maddox
Victor Argo	...	Sydney Simon
Conrad Goode	...	Max
Paul Schulze	...	Jake
Lance Reddick	...	Arnie
Famke Janssen	...	Aggie Conrad
Oliver Platt	...	Louis Sachs
Aidan Devine	...	Leon Croft
Alex Campbell	...	Jonathan

Storyline

A group of thieves steal a rare gem, but in the process, two of the men double cross the leader of the thieving group, Patrick, and take off with the precious stone. Ten years later, prominent psychiatrist Nathan Conrad is invited to examine a disturbed young woman named Elisabeth. Patrick immediately kidnaps Nathan's daughter, forcing Nathan to attempt to get Elisabeth to reveal a secret number which will ultimately lead Patrick to the whereabouts of the precious gem that has eluded him.

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Plot Keywords:

four word title | female mental patient | psychiatrist | post traumatic stress disorder | number | 

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Taglines:

You want what they want, don't you... I'll never tell... any of you.

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, including some gruesome images, and language

Details

Country:

USA Australia Switzerland Canada

Language:

English Italian Chinese

Release Date:

28 September 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ni una palabra

Filming Locations:

Canal Street Station, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$50,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$17,090,474, 30 September 2001, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$55,001,642

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$100,020,092

Company Credits

Production Co:

Regency Enterprises, Village Roadshow Pictures, NPV Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The famous way Brittany Murphy sings "I'll never tell" was improvised by the actress.

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Goofs

Near the end, Douglas holds a gun directly at Bean's head. In the close ups, Douglas's eye contact with Bean seems to be downward at about a 45-degree angle. But Douglas is standing and Bean is prone on the ground. Since Douglas is not on his knees and if we use Pythagora's Theorem with the angle of eye contact and the actor's 5'10" height; one must conclude that Douglas's left arm is over eight feet long.

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Quotes

Patrick Koster: [reading aloud a number] 1798.
Dolen: That was a bad year.

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Connections

Featured in Barend en Van Dorp: Episode dated 6 December 2001 (2001)

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Soundtracks

Funky Cold Medina
Written by Matt Dike, Michael Ross (as Mike Ross) and Marvin Young
Performed by Tone Loc
Courtesy of Delicious Vinyl

User Reviews

Entertaining but never manages to make you forget that it's daft

Renowned psychiatrist Nathan Conrad visits an 18 year old woman who is mentally disturbed with his colleague Dr Sachs. The next morning he awakes to find his daughter kidnapped and him and his wife under surveillance by a shadowy group of men. He is given until 5pm that day to get the patient to reveal a 6 digit number to him that is locked up in her head. Meanwhile his wife is trapped in their flat and police woman Cassidy is piecing together a puzzle that begins with the discovery of two related murders.

It doesn't matter how daft a story is if it manages to convince you for as long as it's on screen. For example Face/Off has the most absurd plot in the world, but for 2 hours it doesn't matter and it carries you along. This doesn't quite manage the same trick. The plot is daft - every single part of it is silly from the idea of a girl being unreachable is daft, the idea of the gang doing this is daft and the way that with very little notice the gang manage to set up cameras everywhere.

That said it has it's moments - the opening robbery is good and some of the drama works well. However for too much of the film you feel like the director is really trying to make it feel more tense than it is - witness the scene where Conrad first finds talks to Patrick Koster on the phone, the camera spins wildly all round him. Similarly he uses a lot of handheld stuff to give the impression of more action than is really happening, he also uses other lazy tricks like having everyone shouting their lines at times and making everyone squeal their tyres etc when they drive! These combined with the silly plot make it hard to get into.

Douglas is OK but he doesn't convince as the strong father figure that saves the day - he looks too old to take on Bean in a fight. He also looks far to old to have a beauty like Famke Janssen. She does well despite being stuck indoors all the time - the only problem with her is that she is far to warm and perfect a character. Murphy is good although she has moments where she's too hammy. Bean and his gang are good but they are distant from the action and never feel like a real threat - in fact you could almost sympathise with Bean, having been double-crossed at the start and wasting 10 years of his life. Esposito is OK but she doesn't really have a character - she tries to be tough and slightly sassy (a role she did so well everyday in Spin City) but she comes across as nondescript as her black leather coat. Victor Argo is a pleasure to see, but he's wasted here with nothing to do in a really small role. Fans of Abel Ferrera will know him while he's been in other things (notably the two Smoke films) and know how good a character actor he can be.

Overall this never manages to rise above it's silly plot. It has it's moments but with lesser stars this would have been just another silly straight-to-video thriller.