Product Details

• Actors: Michael Douglas, Sean Bean, Brittany Murphy, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Guy Torry
• Directors: Gary Fleder
• Writers: Andrew Klavan, Anthony Peckham, Patrick Smith Kelly
• Producers: Andrew Klavan, Anne Kopelson, Arnold Kopelson, Arnon Milchan
• Format: PAL
• Language: English, Italian
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Run Time: 113 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (148 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00006AFI2

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Adapted from Andrew Klavan's bestselling suspense novel, Don't Say a Word is a suitable companion to director Gary Fleder's earlier hit Kiss the Girls, with solid performances serving a plot that begins promisingly. The tension starts when the daughter of a topnotch New York psychiatrist (Michael Douglas) is kidnapped by a bitter ex-con (Sean Bean) with an old score to settle. Aided by an unwitting colleague (Oliver Platt), Douglas can save his daughter by extracting crucial information from a traumatized patient (Brittany Murphy), while his bedridden wife (Famke Janssen) and a tenacious detective (Jennifer Esposito) do their part to solve the mystery. Fleder pushes all the routine buttons with effectively somber style, so Don't Say a Word will satisfy anyone with a preference for high-anxiety thrillers, even as it grows increasingly conventional; it's entertaining without being particularly original. It's a by-the-book programmer, just right for rainy-day viewing. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker

Vicious jewel thieves kidnap a smart little girl; her father, a master psychiatrist (Michael Douglas), must wrest a certain bit of information that the thieves want from a young woman (Brittany Murphy) who may or may not be crazy. Meanwhile, the psychiatrist's wife (Famke Janssen) lies in bed with a broken leg and fights off the gang with her crutch. All these not quite fascinating activities take place in an oppressive, gray-blue Manhattan and culminate in a violent fight that goes on forever in the semi-darkness of a graveyard. The movie's gravity is inane; nothing here works. Directed by Gary Fleder. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't Say a Word, October 1, 2001

By 

Matthew Parks (DURHAM, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

When his career stagnated in the late 80's after his Oscar win for WALL STREET, Michael Douglas reinvented himself as an actor as the poet of middle aged paranoia. From BASIC INSTINCT to FALLING DOWN to WAR OF THE ROSES to DISCLOSURE to THE GAME, no one other than Alfred Hitchcock (though Hitchcock did it from behind the camera) has made more of a career by cataloging on celluloid the litany of fears (both rational and irrational) that plague the psyche of the middle-aged American male--sex, drugs, violence, and career as destructive forces forever chipping away at the family and at the self.

Viewed in this light, it is understandable why Douglas took this role. It carries forward many of the actor's favorite themes--alienation, the threatened family, justified paranoia. That being said though, this is not among Douglas's best work. His performance is once again admirable, but the direction is ho-hum, and while it starts off with originality and promise, it falls near the end back into the same old action and suspense movie cliches, and at times it is detectable that a script doctor was brought in to rewrite certain scenes. The result is a modestly entertaining thriller that makes for an OK Saturday night, but isn't likely to get Michael Douglas an invite to Oscar night.

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Kinda like running into an ex-girlfriend, October 9, 2001

By 

Jeffrey Ellis "bored recluse" (Richardson, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Don't Say A World is like spending the night with an ex-High School girlfriend. You'll get what you were looking for and you probably won't hate yourself in the morning. This isn't a great film. Its debatable whether its really even a good film but its does what it does effectively. Michael Douglas is a psychyatrist whose daughter is kidnapped by criminal Sean Bean. Seems that Douglas' patient, Brittany Murphy, has a number in her head that Bean desperately wants and if Douglas doesn't get Murphy to reveal that number, then Bean will kill Douglas' daughter. Plot-wise, this pretty much by the numbers and there aren't a whole lot of surprises. Its predictable entertainment but, and I don't mean this to be insulting at all, people who enjoy thrillers where the good guys are unquestionably good and the bad guys are, without a doubt, evil will probably enjoy this. Those who demand shades of gray in their plots will want to go see Memento again. Again, I don't mean that to be a condemnation of this film or any of the many people who enjoyed it. Sometimes you're in the mood for a Memento and sometimes you're in the mood for a Don't Say A Word and when I saw this film, I was more in the mood for a Memento. However, all that said, Don't Say A Word pushes its buttons with an unmistakable skill. Douglas and Bean are pretty much playing the characters they always seem to play but they're both good enough actors with enough screen presence that its not as annoying as watching Sylvester Stallone sleepwalk through some of his lesser, non-Rambo action films. As well, Brittany Murphy is a wonderful actress even if her character annoyed me. To an extent, she's going through the same paces as in Girl, Interrupted but, like Douglas and Bean, she does it well. Gary Felder's a good director and keeps the predictable story from dragging. If you're looking for a chance to just chill out for two hours and watch some bad guys get what's coming to them (and, let's be honest, after everything that's happened over the past month -- who isn't?), this film might be for you. If its not, well, at least you didn't pay money for Pearl Harbor again.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brittany Murphy Does It Again!, June 18, 2002

By 

"wildkarrde3" (Bronx, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Say a Word [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The TV ads for this movie had made me want to rush to the theaters to see this film, but alas, I had to wait for it to come out on video before actually viewing this great flick. The movie is full of action and nail-biting suspense. Michael Douglas plays a successful psychiatrist in private practice who is asked by a colleague to interview a perplexing patient. The patient, played exquisitely by Brittany Murphy, is perceived as a paranoid schizophrenic by some, delusional by others, a real puzzle to the psychiatric community. As Dr. Conrad (Douglas) delves into the case, he discovers that Patient Barrows' (Murphy) case isn't as complicated as it seems. However, his successful attempts to reach the patient have drawn some undesireable attention. It seems that Conrad's patient has a very important number locked deep inside her disturbed mind and someone is willing to do anything to get that number. That someone, played by Sean Bean, kidnaps Conrad's daughter and threatens to kill her if Conrad doesn't get the number from Barrows. Attempts to retrieve the number give us the movie's catch phrase: I'll never tell.
Brittany Murphy's performance in this film is nothing short of spectacular. I work with psychiatric patients and I can honestly say that she gives off a very convincing performance. Michael Douglas, Sean Bean, and Famke Janssen are also great, but Murphy steals the show in this one. A very talented actress!
While I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, I feel it is only fair to warn you that there are a couple of inconsistancies. First, there is a scene involving an attack made by Patient Barrows against an orderly in Rockland State. Well, working at Rockland Psych. Center (which is the only state hospital in Rockland), I can assure you that we have no such thing as an orderly. Also, some of the scenes in Manhattan are a little off, but you would only notice if you lived out here. And a warning for those of you who want to see this because you read the book. Although the basic premise is the same, the story takes a completely different turn. If you were expecting the same outcome in the movie as the book, you'll be a tad disappointed, but definitely see it anyway - it's well worth it!!!