If you grew up with siblings, at some point you probably came to the
realization that if you could just torment your sister quietly enough,
eventually you could get her to scream loudly. And all your mom would
care about was keeping things quiet. This has been a common theme in thrillers,
popping up in everything from Wallace and Gromit’s The Wrong Trousers
to Pacific Heights. In each such films the tension naturally ratchets
up as the evil mastermind uses the system against the poor hero.
The setup for Cold Creek Manor is similar and pretty simple. If
you first accept the notion that everyone in the world is a complete idiot.
The setup is that Cooper (Dennis Quaid) and Leah Tilson (Sharon Stone)
decide that they just must move out to the country after their son is
almost hit by a car (apparently something that only happens in big cities).
So they pack off to upstate New York in search of a giant mansion they
can buy through foreclosure for pennies on the dollar. They quickly find
something (on 1,400 acres, no less) and immediately buy the place, with
no questions asked about the former occupants. This despite the fact that
the place is still fully furnished and one of the beds looks like it may
have been slept in the night before (it wasn’t, but they apparently aren’t
bothered).
So of course it comes as a huge shock when the former owner, Dale Massie
(played well by Steven Dorff) shows up and talks his way into the employ
of the new owners. Could it be that he isn’t as nice as he first appears
(though he doesn’t appear all that nice to begin with)? Could it be that
there is a dark secret being kept? Well, I’m certainly not going to ruin
it for you.
Maybe it was simply the presence of Juliette Lewis once again showing
affection for a man of less-than-sterling character, but scene after scene
brought to mind Cape Fear, and this is ultimately fatal to Cold
Creek Manor as it never comes close to the intensity of either version
of the classic thriller. This is especially true of the rain-soaked climax
that works surprisingly well while you’re watching it, but leaves you
immediately thinking of other superior films and wondering how you got
caught up in something so empty.
Juliette Lewis whispers a warning to Dennis Quaid. ©Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
And that is the other fatal defect: there’s nothing there. Despite taking
almost two hours to really move the story along to a 10-minute conclusion,
there is surprisingly little groundwork laid for the payoff. So if you
don’t immediately put the film out of mind upon exiting the theater, you’ll
just come up with a list of questions. That can be a great thing, but
not when all the answers are that the director and screenwriter apparently
just didn’t give it much thought.
It is difficult to say that Cold Creek Manor is a bad movie; it
really isn’t. It is just solidly mediocre and strives for too much, never
accomplishing anything. As time is adding some roughness to his face,
Dennis Quaid is aging well into a series of mature roles (Traffic,
The Rookie, Far From Heaven, and upcoming, The Alamo)
that should serve him well in the years ahead. Meanwhile, Sharon Stone
isn’t bad as the questioning wife, but she continues to show that she
is probably better at being a famous actress than simply being an actor.
Showing them all how to play the game is Christopher Plummer as Dale
Massie’s hateful father. In less than 10 minutes of screen time, Plummer
creates a character filled with hate. Just in the way he spits out a command
like “get me another cherry” fills you with revulsion for what
he has become and what he must have been. A much better movie would have
emerged if this role could have been expanded into something more central
to the movie, but instead Plummer is simply there to explain the final
pieces that the director can’t be bothered to show instead.
With nothing to particularly recommend it, a better idea than wandering
down to the movie theater might be to head over to the video store and
rent some of the other movies mentioned here. Start with The Wrong
Trousers and then put the kids to bed. Then you can spend the rest
of the evening jumping into each other’s arms at truly suspenseful movies.
Cold Creek Manor is a Touchstone Pictures
production
Directed by Mike Figgis
Screenplay by Richard Jeffries
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Sharon Stone, Steven
Dorff, Juliette Lewis, and Christopher Plummer
Rated R for language, violence and some
sexuality
118 minutes
