After watching the first 15 or 20 minutes of director Mike Figgis's Cold Creek Manor, one gets worried. It seems like Figgis, one of the more maverick directors around, is showing us a gripping and atmospheric psychological thriller. One worries if he will ensure the rest of the film remains as interesting. But halfway through the film, there is no doubt that the downhill race has started. One also suspects, rightly, that the film may never recover.
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Suspenseful moments begin evaporating fast as the identity of the bad guy is revealed and the victims and villain behave stupidly from one scene to another, making the film sound and look silly.
When the family's horse is found dead, for instance, the suspicion falls not on the obvious troublemaker but the good husband who had been drinking the previous night on the way to home. The conclusion that he ran over the horse, which was later found in the swimming pool, is blindly accepted. The rooftop climax in pouring rain may look atmospherically terrific, but adds hardly a thrill to the film, which is long dead by then.
The movie features Sharon Stone, in what was described by the media as her comeback role, and Dennis Quaid as the Tilsons, a married couple who leave New York after one of their two children nearly dies in an accident.
But the 'quiet' country home doesn't stay that way long when ex-con Dale Massie (Stephen Dorff) comes back to his former family home -- Cold Creek Manor. He says he is looking for work.
You begin feeling uncomfortable when the Tilsons decide to give him work; you wonder why they are so simplistic.
Figgis, whose more successful thriller Internal Affairs dealt with police brutality and the far superior Leaving Las Vegas with the ravages of alcoholism, doesn't want to tell just another suspenseful story. He deals with new money versus old and the theme of rural gentrification led by town folks. And that often derails the film.
Once Dale starts working for the Tilsons, strange things begin to happen. Snakes start appearing all over the place. There is also a confrontation in a cafe where Dale accuses Cooper Tilson of buying the Cold Creek Manor when he was in jail. He is not satisfied with Cooper's efforts to prove the legitimacy of the purchase.
Before the unsurprising climax, Cooper visits Dale's father (Christopher Plummer), who happens to be yet another vicious character, in a nursing home. The sequence has some tension, but like much of the film remains unsatisfactory.
Stone, in her first major release in four years, has precious little to do while Quaid and Dorff are far better. The former is very good when he seeks to mend fences with Dale in a smoky, hostile poolroom. We see him recognise the danger, and we also see in him some stubborn idealism, a little hope. Juliette Lewis, as Dale's girlfriend, is wasted.
CREDITS
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Sharon Stone, Stephen Dorff, Juliette Lewis, Christopher Plummer
Director: Mike Figgis
Writer: Richard Jefferies
Running time: 2 hours
Rating: R (violence, language and some sexuality)
Distributor: Touchstone Pictures
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