HIDEAWAY
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1995 Michael John Legeros
Directed by Brett Leonard (THE LAWNMOWER MAN)
Written by Andrew Kevin Walker and Neal Jimenez,
based on the novel by Dean R. Koontz
Cast Jeff Goldblum, Christine Lahti, Alicia Silverstone,
Jeremy Sisto
MPAA Rating "R" (presumably for violence, language, and gore)
Running Time 118 Minutes
Reviewed at United Artists at Mission Valley, Raleigh (3MAR95)
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Dean Koontz reportedly asked to have his name taken off HIDEAWAY and it's easy to see why. The author's voice is nowhere to be found in this absurd adaptation of his 1993 bestseller. Koontz writes about men with mysteries--mysteries that take half the novel to unravel. His stories work because the author never tips his hand too soon. Here, the secrets are revealed at the very beginning.
The first scenes explain the psychic relationship between two strangers: the loving husband Hatch (Jeff Goldblum) and a teenage serial killer (Jeremy Sisto). With the big mystery solved so early, the plot has nowhere to go. The story can only devolve into simple scare tactics.
Sure, cheap thrills are fine for some. HIDEAWAY can certainly hold its own against any slasher pic. The plot is only mildly awful, and the actors actually can. There is a slight problem with the bad guy, though--he's about as threatening as a member of Spinal Tap. Maybe if he wore a hockey mask..
Grade: D+
-- Michael J. Legeros Raleigh, North Carolina
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