Ghostly happenings in northern Vermont with Ford & Pfeiffer
A couple living on Lake Champlain (Harrison Ford & Michelle Pfeiffer) face the empty nest syndrome as the wife experiences increasingly spectral happenings. Diana Scarwid, James Remar and Miranda Otto have peripheral roles.
"What Lies Beneath" (2000) is a Hitchcockian drama/mystery with a bit o’ horror. It starts by borrowing from "Rear Window" (1954), but thankfully veers from there. At a little past the hour mark I was starting to get restless. The story was progressing too slowly with too many doors inexplicably opening. I suppose it didn’t help that Pfeiffer doesn’t trip my trigger, although she’s serviceable (I wouldn’t say I DON’T like her); and Harrison’s character seems unjustifiably gruff and impatient.
However, the Upstate Vermont/ New York locations are fabulous and a mysterious mood is effectively established. The way things pan out is unexpected, unless you saw the trailer first, which outrageously spoils it. The concluding F/X sequence is beautiful in a ghostly way and satisfyingly brings closure. What didn’t make sense earlier is elucidated. At the end of the day, the movie’s underwhelming, but not altogether unworthy if you’re in the mode for a flick of this sort.
The film runs 2 hours, 10 minutes, and was shot in the Lake Champlain region of Vermont/New York (Burlington, D.A.R. State Park, Waterbury & Westport) with other stuff done in Southern Cal (Los Angeles, Playa Vista & Culver City).
GRADE: C+/B-