Stir of Echoes ***1/2
Rated on a 4-star scale Screening venue: Odeon (Liverpool City Centre) Released in the UK by Fox on May 26, 2000; certificate 15; 99 minutes; country of origin USA; aspect ratio 1.85:1
Directed by David Koepp; produced by Judy Hofflund, Gavin Polone. Written by David Koepp; based on the novel by Richard Matheson. Photographed by Fred Murphy; edited by Jill Savitt.
CAST..... Kevin Bacon..... Tom Witzky Kathryn Erbe..... Maggie Witzky Ileana Douglas..... Lisa Liza Weil..... Debbie Kozac, the babysitter Kevin Dunn..... Frank McCarthy Conor O'Farrell..... Harry Damon Jenny Morrison..... Samantha Zachary David Cope..... Jake Witzky
"Stir of Echoes" is one of the year's best films, is based on a best selling novel, and features Kevin Bacon in one of his most skilful performances. Films of this calibre don't often hit our screens. And yet it has arrived with little advance buzz and a cheap publicity campaign. Why? Maybe because people are still eating up "The Sixth Sense", the ghost story from last year that got six Oscar nominations and topped box office charts. "Stir of Echoes" shames that silly con trick, matching its spooky atmosphere in every frame, and going much further in developing a story.
Bacon plays Tom Witzky, a blue-collar guy from Chicago who one night jokingly dares his kooky sister-in-law Lisa (Ileana Douglas) to hypnotise him. "How can you believe in all that superstitious crap?" he asks. When Lisa has him under, she leaves him with what's known as a Post-Hypnotic Suggestion, leaving a message in his brain. She asks him to be more open-minded.
And that he becomes, but not in the way she intended. After Tom wakes up he has disturbing visions and feelings of strange sickness, because he's now a 'receiver' -- a person able to see everything around him, both material and supernatural. His son Jake (Zachary David Cope) has always had the gift, and tells his father "Don't be afraid of it, daddy." When Tom calms down, and tries to make sense of the phenomena going on around him, he realises he's being haunted by the ghost of a dead teenage girl who wants him to unearth something related to her memory.
There are a lot of plot threads in "Stir of Echoes", all of which somehow become related to this girl. But they don't feel like story manoeuvres, they feel like atmosphere, because everything is set up through either realistic supporting characters or Tom's visions. Things are glimpsed just enough so we can mark and remember them, but not so much that we can figure out what everything means or is leading up to. While we're watching the movie, all we can focus on is the fact that Tom is going through something weird, and I found myself shivering, jumping and glaring in disgusted disbelief, as the haunting got more serious, tormenting and dominating Tom's life. We see what he sees, and it gets under our skin by coming in violent flashes, through bizarre angles, colours and speeds.
Disorientating apparitions alone cannot carry a film. Here they are supported by a) cinematography whose dark, shady tones walk the line between realistic and spooky, so we can never quite relax; and b) a performance of intensity from Bacon. He's not always cast in sombre roles, but he's perfect for them -- his good looks and sense of humour can always win audiences over, and his strong features and hungry face mean that when his character is taking something seriously, we do too. In "Stir of Echoes" he plays a man whose head gets torn apart, and we're sure as hell let know it.
It's also good to see a picture like this set in a regular neighbourhood; usually in these movies only the affluent get ghouls or spirits coming to visit. That's one example of the richness of "Stir of Echoes", which is as detailed in texture as a novel, and doesn't contain standard movie clichés like Tom taking a long time to realise the obvious, or keeping his experiences secret from his wife. Consider also the final shot, which is not just a cheap scare, but a remembrance of the implications of the story. I haven't read the Richard Matheson source material, and in fact perhaps I should stop reading books altogether. After all, most of the literary adaptations I have enjoyed this year have been based on things I haven't read. Then again, maybe this is just a wonderful movie.
COPYRIGHT(c) 2000 Ian Waldron-Mantgani Please visit, and encourage others to visit, the UK Critic's website at http://members.aol.com/ukcritic
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