Low-brow, underwritten melodrama posing as a suspense thriller. Divorced, modest-living boat builder in a seaside town is hoping he'll get along with his ex-wife's new husband, but his pre-teen son has convinced dad that the new guy is bad news. Flabby, witless picture makes all the females look like ninnies and the police detectives lazy incompetents; however, this is quite deliberate as the filmmakers want the audience completely on John Travolta's side--but isn't there a more intricate, subtle way of devising this? The kid (who, by the way, resembles new stepfather Vince Vaughn more so than John Travolta!) is 12-years-old going on 27, while John himself looks wrung out. The movie wants desperately to appeal to our most basic responses to terror within the familial unit: new man in the house with a shady past is not only a crook but a psychopath, and therefore he "gets" what's coming to him. This kind of cheapjack screenwriting is a cheat to anyone who invests their interest in these one-dimensional characters, while the cast struggles to enliven the stale scenario. * from ****
Review of Domestic Disturbance
