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"DREAM HOUSE"
(2011) (Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz) (PG-13)

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QUICK TAKE:
Supernatural Thriller: A family man discovers that the house he lives in now was the scene of a triple murder five years earlier…and he might have been the murderer.
PLOT:
Soon after Will and Libby Atenton (DANIEL CRAIG and RACHEL WEISZ) move from New York City to suburban Connecticut with their two daughters, Trish and Dee Dee (TAYLOR and CLAIRE GEARE), they discover that their seemingly idyllic home was the site of a triple murder five years earlier. It seems a father snapped in that house and shot his wife and two young daughters.

Their neighbor, Ann (NAOMI WATTS), appears to know more about the killings than she leads on. But she is dealing with Jack (MARTON CSOKAS), an angry ex-husband who thinks she cheated on him when they were married. They share custody of a teenage daughter, Chloe (RACHEL G. FOX), who also seems to know more about the murders that happened on their street years earlier.

Will starts to doubt his sanity when certain clues point to him as the deranged father. He goes to track down the killer, who was placed under psychiatric care, and is shocked to discover that it really was him. He also learns that he was recently discharged from the mental facility because there was never any hard evidence that he committed the murders. Did he commit the murders and his mind can't accept it? Did Libby kill the girls and then turn the gun on herself? Or, was it Boyce (ELIAS KOTEAS), the shadowy man who Will catches lurking near his old house from time to time?

OUR TAKE: 3.5 out of 10
Our reviewing policy for films that aren't shown in advance to critics is that we'll only provide a paragraph or two about the film's artistic merits.

Directed by Jim Sheridan, "Dream House" is one of those flicks that is so busy stealing from other movies that it never settles down and becomes its own film. The story is told in five- to 10-minute segments that should feature title cards alerting the audience what other (better) motion picture will the filmmakers be ripping off next. For a 10-minute stretch, all concerned crib from "The Sixth Sense." Then, the next five minutes, they rob from "The Others." Oooh, enough of that! Let's spend the next 10 or so minutes jacking "Shutter Island." Hey, that wasn't really making any sense. Let's now swipe from "Ghost!"

The callbacks to other movies do this movie a serious disservice, because it always keeps the audience outside the film. Daniel Craig stars as Will, a man who may or may not have slaughtered his wife (Rachel Weisz) and two daughters (Taylor and Claire Geare) five years earlier in their idyllic dream house in suburban Connecticut. They may or may not be haunting him now as ghosts that only he can see. He may or may not be trying to put the shattered fragments of his mind back together by returning to that house. He may or may not have been having an affair with his next-door neighbor, Ann (Naomi Watts), who may or may not know what really happened that tragic night.

The film reportedly had behind-the-scenes difficulties, and it shows. Craig is all over the place with his performance. His hairstyle comically changes from scene to scene. Very little of the plot holds together afterwards. And a late plot twist is handled with all the finesse of a wild-eyed killer running up to police with a smoking gun yelling, "I did it! I did it!" Ugh. This is one "House" that should be pulled from the market as soon as possible. I rate it a 3.5 out of 10. (T. Durgin)




Reviewed September 30, 2011 / Posted September 30, 2011


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