HUSH Reviewed by Jamie Peck
Paltrow and Johnathon Schaech play Helen and Jackson, a photogenic New York couple on their way to spend Christmas vacation at his wealthy, well-to-do family's horse farm/estate Kilronan. Jackson's mother Martha (Lange) runs Kilronan all by herself, and her genteel Southern hospitality makes Helen feel welcome immediately -- even if her first meeting with Martha takes place while Helen is in the altogether, caught red-handed after a bedroom romp with her husband-to-be. But it seems that Martha's friendly smile masks a much more threatening demeanor; she's what you'd call someone who loves too much. Martha eagerly, deviously wants a grandchild, and then Helen will be expendable, as far as she's concerned.
If there's one reason to catch "Hush," it's Lange. She treats the pedestrian screenplay better than it deserves to be treated, injecting Martha (poorly written though she may be) with a little empathy to level out the psycho-playing field. When she delves into Martha's dark side, predictable cliches -- chain-smoking, staring in mirrors, praying in a confessional to a priest who isn't there, poking a hole in Helen's diaphragm so she'll become pregnant (and she does) -- abound, but it's moderately entertaining junk because Lange is such an interesting actress to watch. Veteran performer Nina Foch is smart and tart as Jackson's wheelchair-bound paternal grandmother. The rest of the cast looks ill and uncomfortable, especially Paltrow. But can you really blame them?
The character relationships in "Hush" hold a certain amount of promise, at least until their psychological impact is blown out of the water by sheer stupidity. Idiotic situations (Martha yells at a nearby horse so it will bolt up and knock Helen over) compliment idiotic dialogue ("Why did you yell?" Helen yells back at Martha), and the film takes the form of one of the shoddier fill in the blank-from-hell flicks ever made. You can see through a great deal of Martha's actions and lies from their conception; why do people who have known this woman for years longer than we have never figure things out? Does nobody communicate or read the newspaper in this town? If any of her potential victims thought, acted or behaved like normal people,"Hush" would be a really short movie.
And then there's the climax and ending, which abruptly come when Helen starts having contractions after eating some pound cake spiked with a labor-inducing drug normally used on horses. After a really weird chase scene, Martha calmly knits in a rocking chair while forcing Helen to give birth in a bed all by herself. I won't spoil what happens next except to say that it's contradictory, illogical and (probably, since I'm no doctor) medically impossible. The final scene offers no closure, no resolution, no confrontation whatsoever. It's just there, dangling amidst silent displeasure. No one should like this ending, regardless of their feelings on the preceding material. Perhaps "Hush"'s title is a plea to silence its audience's likely bitter word of mouth while exiting the theater.
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