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Domestic Disturbance review
:. Director: Harold Becker
:. Starring: John Travolta, Vince Vaughn
:. Running Time: 1:30
:. Year: 2001
:. Country: USA
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Domestic Disturbance is by any standard a god-awful movie, one of the year's worst. This, of course, also means there's a lot of unintended, excellent entertainment to be had. Treat this movie like a bad thriller in which you can guess every stupid move, and by the time the Friday the 13th -esque ending arrives, you'll be laughing your face off. I'm not joking: by the end of this film, the audience howled like we were in a Farrelly Brothers' movie, and I almost suggested to the hapless publicist that greeted us as we left, though I wimped out, that they market this film as a straight comedy.
The film takes place in Maryland in a scenic coastal town. Frank Morrison (John Travolta) is a boat builder who shares custody of his son Danny (Matt O'Leary) with his ex-wife Susan (Teri Polo). This arrangement appears to work until Susan's new fiancé Rick Barnes (Vince Vaughn) begins to mistreat Danny and then murders an old criminal associate named Ray Coleman (Steve Buscemi looking sickly) with Danny accidentally observing the whole thing. At first Frank refuses to believe his son, historically a chronic liar, but soon Frank sides with Danny and finds himself ostracized by the community as he searches for the truth.
This part of the film is modestly entertaining despite poor writing and largely clichéd scenes. Harold Becker, the director, mines every banal thriller formula and trick in the book, but he does it in a relatively professional manner that makes the film, at least thus far, reasonably watchable. Immense credit must also go to Travolta who is literally heroic as he continually transcends his absurd lines (a lady behind me: "Wow, this script is terrible!") and gives us a believable, conflicted father in Frank Morrison. Vince Vaughn and Teri Polo also play their parts as if they actually mean something, and even Matt O'Leary - I'm usually very weary of child actors - does a serviceable job as the tormented, abused Danny.
Then the film approaches its end like it's trickling down to its dregs. If the story about halfway through appeared slick, silly, but decently entertaining, the last act destroys any quality there might have been and, in my perhaps crazy opinion, thereby utterly redeems the entire movie. Imagine if this idiotic film had given us some sober, serious conclusion. Instead Becker, probably unwittingly, turns the ending into an absolute comedy of inept, bottom barrel filmmaking that even a B-movie, slasher flick director might have blushed at. As the audience yelled out various upcoming scenarios and then they happened, laughter, first tentative, then unstoppable, erupted throughout the theatre. At some point I dropped my petty disgust for the pure hilarity of it all, and damn was it fun.
If Paramount had any true marketing inspiration, they would boldly sell Domestic Disturbance as a deliberate comedy, a spoof on silly, formulaic thrillers. Trailers would present the ridiculous concluding scenes in their entirety, and the initially confused audiences would rapidly recognize and embrace the joke. It might even amount to official recognition of the genre of unintended comedies that fans have long cherished. But of course Paramount won't do this, and, either way, I'd say haughtily ignore this film in the theatre ($9 bucks a pop probably isn't worth it), but eagerly await the video/DVD release. At that time, kick back with some friends - the more hecklers, the better - and have an absolute ball.
Paul Seradarian
 Movie Reviews: from 1998 to 2011
Movie Reviews since 2012
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