When the Bough Breaks (1994) User Reviews

Some Good Suspense

[Lechuguilla · 6/10 · 17 January 2017]

Up until near the end this film held my attention. There's plenty of suspense. Set in Houston, the story involves a hotshot young investigator named Audrey Macleah (Ally Walker) assigned to assist police Captain Swaggert (Martin Sheen) in a grisly case of severed hands.

The plot plays out in segments corresponding to dates, beginning on July 4th and spans a period of about two weeks. During this time, Macleah interviews a young boy in a mental ward, chases a prospective child killer, and ends up in a spooky old house that contains some spooky surprises. This thriller genre film sports foreboding background sounds and music to enhance the scary visuals.

Unfortunately, the ending collapses into a pile of unresolved issues and an incoherent resolution that left me confused. It's like the scriptwriter knew exactly where he wanted to take the story, but then near the end got his pages all mixed up, or lost, and used pages from another script to complete this one. Baffling.

The casting and performance of Walker is also baffling. She comes across as jittery and abrasive, in marked contrast to Sheen who gives a convincingly realistic performance. But maybe Walker's problem relates more to the Director's style. The film exhibits good production design and color cinematography. Amplified sound effects convey an appropriate immediacy to scenes.

Despite the script's loose ends and poor ending, "When The Bough Breaks" is still worth a one-time watch due to superb suspense through most of the film.

Solid Thriller

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 13 June 2009]

On July, 4th in Houston, a teenager finds a human hand in the sewer. Captain Swaggert (Martin Sheen) is investigating the discovery of seven hands, each one precisely severed and with a number tattooed on the palm, along many years but without any lead. The highly qualified Special Investigator Audrey Macleah (Ally Walker) is assigned to join the team and give support to the investigation. When the police department receives a call from a medical doctor in an institution, Audrey visits him and the doctor introduces the autistic boy Jordan Thomas (Tara Subkoff) to her, disclosing seven hands that the boy had drawn on the wall. Audrey dedicates her attention to Jordan and discovers that he is connected to the serial-killer.

"When the Bough Breaks" is a surprisingly solid thriller, with a well developed dark story and a good conclusion. Ally Walker has a great performance in the role of a professional with many specializations, but also with a trauma from her childhood. Tara Subkoff is also amazing with her double-role. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Assassinatos Macabros" ("Macabre Murders")

A surprisingly good thriller

[rm.bentley · 7/10 · 14 June 2003]

I have to thank the 'Further Attractions' trailer section on my American Yakuza DVD for finding this gem. My expectations weren't exactly high when I hit the play button but I was utterly hooked from the movie's start (when a young couple make a gruesome discovery) up until its nail biting finale. With an engaging story line, stylish and assured directing and writing, photography and music that perfectly blends with the mood of the story and good performances from all the cast I found this film an uncomfortable pleasure to watch. I'm not one that's easily scared but I can tell you my was heart pounding during the final 15 minutes of the film. If you enjoy a good thriller I would highly recommend buying the DVD... NOW!

An unexpectedly good thriller with a terrific Ally Walker performance

[glidrose · 22 June 2000]

In low budget thrillers we generally don't expect to find genuine shock and depth of characterization. But this film has both. What is particularly surprising is the level of complexity suggested in Ally Walker's portrayal of the lead character Audrey McLeah. The film's script in and of itself doesn't sufficiently account for the undercurrents of alienation and fear that we glimpse in the Audrey character. However, Ally Walker, in what was a fairly early role in her career, manages to convey pain through restraint. It's remarkable work in a vehicle that doesn't necessarily require it.

The film even has some powerful poetic touches such as the scars on Audrey's back, scars that resonate all the more powerfully because they appear in one scene and then vanish while the viewer continues to wonder about their origins and about the many kinds of scars that are evident in the film. Here once again Ally Walker demonstrates an impressive skill for sensitive understatement.

"Silence of the lambs" follower....

[peter_j_rgensen · 7/10 · 24 May 2002]

Turn of the light. Sit alone. Drink a beer. Feel alone !. This movie will bring you down. This one is a thriller.

The end is not so good but in the right atmosphere this movie will not let you slip away from the tense story. "Silence of the lambs" is the best description I can give, though it never reaches this point of excellence.

Ally Walker the whole show

[RavenGlamDVDCollector · 7/10 · 4 April 2014]

I never forgot this one after all these years, but it was hard-to-find on DVD. And just now I was quite surprised to see all the reviews, since I considered it to be a forgotten movie. And these reviews do state what I was going to point out re the unlikeliness of the institutionalized character being able to write, so OK, I'll just say that Ally Walker was absolutely ideal for the part, and that without her in it, I'd never have gone for the movie in the first place. She is very, very attractive and obviously very smart. And I do feel like a fool now because I was going to talk about the lonely lead character with the scars on her back in this darkly bleak thriller, but I'd just be parroting what the other reviewers brought forth. I'll just mention that the dog's leash was tied to the ice cream van, so when it drove off at speed, there was supposed to be another upsetting sight, but instead the dog just disappeared, a major goof! There were material here that could have spawned an entire TV series, instead there was a bit of a rush towards the finale. And I fail to make the link between child molestation, and the doctor who did hand transplants - two separate cases, right? As for the reviewer who thought Ally's character's chain-smoking was unnecessary, I disagree. It's all clearly linked to bad memories, as if she's chasing away the cold inside her, despite it being summer. By the way, the movie doesn't have the remotest summery feel to it, despite all those July references. All in all, a remarkable performance by Ally Walker, but there should have been more! And who is the woman on the poster/DVD box cover? Fortunately, the character does not look like that!

Cheap cut of lamb

[DEPRESSEDcherry · 5/10 · 2 March 2021]

A cheap knockoff of Silence of the Lambs with nowhere near the depravity, horror, or intrigue it hopes to emulate. The movie quickly shifts its focus onto Ally Walker's character, which would be fine if it wasn't at the expense of everyone else. Martin Sheen is relegated to a side note after about 20 minutes and Ron Perlman is only just in the movie. Everyone just seems to be standing around doing nothing while the new hotshot investigator plays mum to a young boy in a mental ward. There's far too much time spent with this boy and this is where the story falls down. Also, the casting of the boy is an unnecessary distraction so easily avoided. The story comes across as ill-thought-out and scatty. Ally walker's character is claustrophobic in sewers big enough to drive a car through, but not in a locked basement or mental wardroom? Why is the boy even locked away like a prisoner? Why has it taken the discovery of several child victim body parts for the police to take proper notice of several missing children? The initial suspect is swiftly disposed of once he can't be used to mislead the audience and the conclusion to the movie borders on the ridiculous. In the end, it feels a long way off from its beginnings.

No plot holes or unanswered questions

[dacmoviebuff · 6/10 · 11 February 2021]

Don't believe the reviews that say there are many unanswered questions or plot holes. Those people obviously weren't paying attention. Everything comes together at the end. Pay special attention to the medical records that the investigator finds and reads at the closed hospital. What she reads explains everything. Also, listen to the conversation with the housekeeper. That provides the motive for the doctor/father. It's worth watching. Not Oscar worthy, but good investigative work that solves the case.

Erm...what were the police doing?

[spenfam-04145 · 3/10 · 15 May 2021]

Started out well. Good acting, interesting story a little slow at times but very watchable. Then about halfway through it began to annoy me. The police department appeared to be as thick as mud, what were they doing? Oh yes....they were at the beck and call of a profiler who made them look like idiots. The profiler was amazing she found every clue, cured an insane young man who had not spoken for 10 years in a matter of days, found the killers hideaway and rescued two girls killing the insane murderer as well.......surely Sainthood should follow.

In fact she should have kept the police informed from the start. Absolutely ridiculous that she went into the house in the first place after finding the van. Call in the police with a warrant, then go inside because she would have no alternative but shoot the killer (after retrieving the gun she lost out of the window)🙄 because nothing she found in the house could be used against the man as she BROKE in. I could go on but suffice it to say that the killer after being well and truely torched managed to break through the burning room door before she shot him 6 times..oh after forgetting to put bullets in her gun....phew.

mental hospital too cliché

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 15 May 2015]

It's July 4th Houston. A dismembered hand is washed out from the sewer. Captain Swaggert (Martin Sheen) leads the investigation of seven neatly severed hands with tattooed numbers. Special Investigator Audrey Macleah (Ally Walker) is a profiler from the State Crime Division and brought in to aid the team. The state mental hospital has a mute boy Jordan Thomas (Tara Subkoff) with mysterious lines around his wrists who draws hands on the walls. Macleah suffers from claustrophobia. Jordan writes the name of Jennifer Lynn Eben, twin daughter of Dr. Douglas Eben (Ron Perlman).

It's fascinating that Ally Walker is playing a profiler a couple years before getting her TV role as a profiler. This is a mix bag of interesting characters and unreal over-stylized characteristics. One can't go wrong with Martin Sheen. Ally Walker is pretty good as this driven profiler character. Giving her claustrophobia is a nice touch. The teen in the mental hospital is too much and too cliché. I wish the case is better written for these characters' sake. The scenes in the hospital are too slow and the movie drags in too many places. This movie doesn't have the flashiness and I actually don't mind. Although I wish it is edited better with some semblance of style.

A rather confused post-SILENCE OF THE LAMBS thriller full of plot holes

[vampire_hounddog · 5/10 · 1 November 2020]

When the severed hands of children are found in a drain after a storm, a police profiler (Ally Walker) is brought in to investigate and uncovers a link with a severely autistic boy (Tara Subkoff) who had been incarcerated since he was 4 years-old.

An indie thriller that seems to be similar to many made in the mid 1990s that followed in the wake of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1990). It does contain some good and effective suspenseful moments, but there are way too many holes in the plot and unresolved issues which will leave the viewer more confused than when they started.

A interesting, flawed lead character, well acted.

[gary-stedman · 9/10 · 31 May 2003]

Not being much of a fan of this type of thriller, I started to watch this film one day, years ago here in the UK with little interest. While watching it I was struck by the rarity of a character like Audrey Macleah, played in such a understated manner by a actress I had never heard of, never having even seen a tv series called Profiler at that time.

The films plot seems to be intelligent and well crafted, with enough depth to keep you on edge until the end. The final act at the Eben house is particulary suspenseful. I lack the credentials to say whenever the film is a good example of its genre but must return to Audrey Macleah/Ally Walker. The manner in which the character is portrayed as a brilliant academic, although lacking in confidence and with her own past demons just hiding under the surface is masterful. A nice touch is the way in which these are left unresolved, rather than a more typical, heavy handed approach.

One of my favourites, and well worth watching.

Not too bad

[stamper · 7/10 · 27 September 2001]

This is not a bad movie actually, but it just lacks those certain things to pull it to a 'good' level. The early 'Sam' of Ally Walker is quite good, but I must say not as good as Sam. The last thing I'd like to remark is that I could have sworn that boy was a boy and that girl was a bloody boy too. But the girl was a girl and the boy, was a girl too. VERY ODD!

6,5 out of 10

Disappointing

[dwill-83440 · 3/10 · 22 March 2021]

I wanted to like this but it was so bad I had to turn it off 45 minutes in. It's a knock off of Silence of the Lambs except that the lead female actor in this film is arrogant, annoying and an average actress (nothing like Jodie Foster). The initial appeal of the movie was to see Martin Sheen act but he was an afterthought in it.

Scary but beautiful

[millielammoreaux · 24 October 2000]

This movie really surprised me as I didn´t expect too much of it. The plot reminds me a little of the great french film LES YEUX SANS VISAGE, and it´s interesting to see the somewhat old school crime scene being transformed into a contemporary tale of murder and obsession. I found this to be very well done and extremely scary. Of the performances, the work of Tara Subkoff, in her first role, needs to be singled out. She is simply amazing and gives an unbelievably emotional portrayel of a mentally disturbed child.

Why were there hands??

[bwestbroker · 1/10 · 4 June 2022]

The premise is find out who the hands belong to..but never addressed WHY hands were cut off or why they were sewn on the twins. Were they both born WITHOUT hands? All the time wasted.on scenes in the hospital yet even at the end...NO explanation about why HANDS were being cut off and sewn on these two chikdren.

did i miss the entertaining part?

[his2ljb · 3/10 · 28 June 2004]

diss-a-point-ment. having got myself in the mood for a thriller i was looking forward to a bit of martin sheen and ron perlman following the typical meanders a thriller takes before WHACK! a twist, a conclusion, happy ending........ didn't see much of any of them! martin sheen's talent is wasted on the few scenes as the police chief (a role you could even train a monkey like orlando bloom to play) and if you blink you'll miss perlmans appearance as the killer. the plot line seems so promising but what could have been a darker, spookier and scarier movie ended all to soon. there are moments you prepare to jump out your seat in fright but.....still waiting...oh nothing happened.

the whole feeling of the film is like this is the kind of thing clareece starling (silence of the lambs FBI lady!) solves in her spare time before the big cases come along. in fact, thats a good way of describing this movie, a normal day in the life of an FBI agent, nothing spectacular, nothing new, boring as 9 to 5. see it by all means but as i gave silence of the lambs an 8 id be lying if i gave this anything over 4 and i don't think it deserves that.

3/10

Bad acting, bad direction

[labolabo · 3/10 · 31 August 2002]

I think this movie had several good points, but also several flaws. The story is a bit too unrealistic, and I think Ally Walker overacted. Normal people in real life simply don't behave the way she does in the movie.

I think it seems to be an interesting manuscript (although with flaws), but I found the work of the director and the actors and actresses rather poor. Not very realistic at all.

Allie Walker is a revelation

[Jeannot · 9/10 · 22 February 1999]

She plays an attractive, but misfit, woman--who is competent at her job, but has no romance. The men around her are either officially correct (Sheen) or ridiculing her behind her back (the rest of the cops). Because of her lack of feminine wiles, she is a loner, and can relate to the isolated boy whom she bonds with.

I would recommend the film, if only for Walker's performance.

Avarage, should have been better

[movie_ape · 5/10 · 9 December 2020]

Ally Walker is great, as an odd-ball special investigator. The issue I have with this movie is the mentally challenged boy -- he is simply played by poor acting. Also to say, not very interesting as a character.

I think this film should have been better since I like the dark themes, atmosphere, the medium length takes, and the dialogue seems interesting enough.

5/10 average thriller with annoying acting and plot holes.

It's got a beat, but you still can't dance to it.

[THK108 · 20 July 1999]

When the Bough Breaks sets an all-time record for unresolved loose ends: scars on the back, birth defects, numbers on the palms, role of the full-time ice cream clown, and on and on. Of course, there are suggestions of untold stories that parallel and bisect the story. But there's enough here to feed a decade-long TV series. (Oops. There goes my chance to make a killing on the spin-offs.)

There are signs of a heart beat in the characters of Audrey Macleah and Jordan/Jenny--but the pulse is weak.

Do not bother.

[giles-horton · 1/10 · 11 January 2020]

Incoherent drivel and devoid of narrative or conclusion

What an unexpected great find!

[pvera · 10/10 · 22 July 2006]

I ran into this movie in one of my on demand channels. I put it on because I had seen everything else I had available. Excellent movie, kept me glued to the TV the whole damn time.

I Did not even bother to pause it to check the credits because Jordan looked a lot like either Isabella Rosellini or Jared Letto, and that kept nagging me through the movie.

How come I am expected to fill-in 10 lines worth of comments? This is kind of silly. Oh well, I honestly had not heard before of this movie, Sheen was more or less a generic authority figure, other 10 actors could have done at least the same job and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Ally Walker played her part more as a real rookie than her actual character, who was supposed to have 3 years in the field. Sometimes in the movie you wonder if she has been in that job for a whole month.

The rest of the cast was pretty forgettable, but still, it was a great movie.

Great thriller despite directorial flaws

[midge56 · 9/10 · 29 July 2010]

The story was excellent. In fact, it was downright scary. The plot and storyline are unlike any other movie I've seen. Quite unique. In fact, if this movie was based on a published book, I'd like to know the name of it. Perhaps the missing parts of the movie, might be in that book. The story came from somewhere, so we need to find more about the source.

There are indeed story lines in this movie which appear, then disappear without a word such as the scars on the investigators back. Evidently, she was a victim of unimaginable abuse based on the scars and perhaps her claustrophobia, but this storyline simply disappeared without explanation. She says a little bit about it when speaking to Jordan in one scene.

The storyline behind the killer, his public life, his secret life and past events concerning his children was just barely enough to connect the movie, but should have had a lot more depth to it and should have included scenes regarding the births and the meltdown of the surgeon for appropriate flashbacks.

The chain smoking of the main character, the lead investigator, was to the point of being disturbing, distasteful and obnoxious. It distracted from the movie and actually interfered with her role. It had no place in the movie and did nothing but get in the way.

Serious flaws were also made concerning the character of a boy (these reviewers need to get over the obvious fact that the actor was a female which was done to create the effect of twins with telepathic links). The boy is NOT autistic. He is an "Elective" mute... that means he "Chose" not to speak. But they show him writing to communicate... yet he had been locked up in a psychiatric cell since he was 4 and was never schooled... thus, there is no way he would know how to read or write under those conditions. For the psychiatric hospital to have buried him in a basement room, unable to see out and the only inhabitant of an entire section of the hospital was simply over the edge. No institution would waste money to maintain heating, cooling, lighting, cleaning and supervision of an entire wing for one person. The conditions were simply ridiculous.

Basically, this movie looks like it had no director or direction. It just looks like someone showed up everyday to collect money for that role but never bothered to do any work... so the cast and crew were left on their own to film the movie. It would have been a directors job to ensure the movie did not have these dead ends and errors and to ensure continuity throughout. Did anyone bother to preview the movie after it was edited? It doesn't look like it. Too many missing explanations and errors. I looked up the director, Michael Cohn and I was right. He is a terrible "non" director. He only directed about 2 other movies and was the writer/director for this one. This could have been a superb movie with a decent director. It is obvious that this one had serious problems and so the cast and crew did the best they could without direction.

Even with the flaws, it is a terrific movie. Unique story and an "edge of the seat" thriller. Highly recommended. Be sure not to mistake this movie for the other one of the same name with Ted Danson. If it says Danson... you have the wrong movie. Many times, even the cable channel directory mixes up the two when they write the description on the schedule.

Excellent!

[M.Hunt · 10/10 · 7 February 1999]

Wow! This movie was excellent! I was panning through the channels when I saw Lifetime was having a little ad about it, and said to myself, 'Ok, I'll just watch it for a little bit...' I ended up watching the entire movie! It's fantastic! A definite must-see!