Stir of Echoes
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DVD details
Actor: Illeana Douglas, Kathryn Erbe, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Dunn, Zachary David CopeDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 99 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-02-01
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Live / Artisan
DVD Reviews of Stir of Echoes
DVD Review: Kevin Bacon does fine in a Richard Matheson ghost story
Summary: 4 Stars
"Stir of Echoes" succeeds because of the talents of a pair of individuals who are under-appreciated in Hollywood. First, there is Richard Matheson, whose novel is adapted here by writer-director David Koepp. Just in terms of novels that have been made into movies Matheson has on his resume "I Am Legend," "What Dreams May Come," "Bid Time Return" (filmed as "Somewhere in Time"), "Someone Is Bleeding," "Hell House," and "The Shrinking Man" (which the babysitter is reading in this movie). There we can talk about 16 episodes of "The Twilight Zone," the scripts for the television movies "Duel" and "The Night Talker," and the screenplays for "House of Usher" and "The Pit and the Pendulum." Matheson should be mentioned in the same breath with Rod Serling and Stephen King, and have his name appear before the title, but after all these years I am left with the feeling that the only ones who have always recognized Matheson as being that good are fellow writers like Serling and King.
The other person whose reputation with audiences is not as good as it is with his peers is Kevin Bacon. The actor held his own with Oscar winners Sean Penn and Tim Robbins in "Mystic River," and while there were certainly reviews that noted how well he did in his less flashier role, you know that most audience members cannot think of him with (a) figuring out how to get from whatever movie they are watching to one in which he starred, (b) humming the theme from "Footloose," or (c) both. In "Stir of Echoes" it is Bacon's performance of a working stiff that grounds Matheson's ghost story in the world of the living, which is what makes it chilling.
There is a sense in which "Stir of Echoes" is a combination of "The Sixth Sense" and "Mystic River," but simply on the level where we have a ghost story set in a working class neighborhood. Tom (Bacon) is married to Maggie (Kathryn Erbe), and they have a five-year-old named Jake (Zachary David Cope). They never notice that their son talks to somebody who is not there and asks questions about whether it hurts to be dead. One night at a party Tom agrees to be hypnotized by Maggie's sister, Lisa (Illeana Doulgas), who plays around with the idea of being a New Age mystic. When Tom comes out of his trance he is not quite sure what happened while he was under. But when he starts seeing the ghost of a young girl (Jenny Morrison), he knows it has something to do with being hypnotized and eventually Lisa confesses that she did make a post-hypnotic suggestion that she thought would improve her brother-in-law.
Tom's life starts coming apart as he becomes obsessed with finding out what the ghost wants, especially once he learns that her name is Samantha and that she was a girl from the neighborhood who disappeared the year before. Tom never wanted to be famous, but he is bothered by the fact that his life is so ordinary. Well, those days (and nights) are behind him now. It is up to his wife to have a chance encounter with the person, Neil the Cop (Eddie Bo Smith Jr.) who explains what has happened: a switch has been thrown and Tom is now a receiver. If he does not do what the ghost requires, then he will never be free. But Tom does not understand what is required and risks losing not only his job, but his friends and family.
The rule in films such as this one is to express madness by going over the top, but Bacon heads in the opposite direction. As he is confronted with nightmarish visions he becomes more withdrawn. Characters haunted by ghosts are rarely so soft spoken. Bacon's choice is perfect for both the character and the story, for when Samantha is able to communicate a single word, "Dig," it reinforces the idea that the truth of this tale is buried not only with Tom's house, but within himself as well. His acceptance of what he is being asked to do has elements is more than weary resignation, for he understands that there is a wrong to be righted.
How good of a ghost story you think "Stir of Echoes" ends up having to do with how far ahead you get of Tom in his quest to put everything together. Once Tom starts digging he spends a lot of time digging in the wrong places, and while he is busy doing that pieces start to fall into place. Koepp plays with us a bit with regards to what is really happening to Tom and his visions. The ones from the past are easy to figure out, but there are also looks into the future that can fake you out, which can be annoying as well. But Bacon's performance makes up for these flaws and even if the endgame of "Stir of Echoes" takes the story back to familiar ground, it is still a lot better than most of the horror films I have seen since this 1999 film came out.
Description of Stir of Echoes
The only real problem with Stir of Echoes has nothing to do with the movie itself, but with unlucky coincidence. Adapted from a Richard Matheson novel, this film arrived around the same time as The Sixth Sense, and surface similarities made it suffer by cursory comparison and the competing film's phenomenal success. It's a pity, because this one features one of Kevin Bacon's best performances, in a psychological thriller that makes a lot more right moves than wrong ones. Bacon plays a blue-collar guy who laments his ordinary life, only to learn, when his sister-in-law (Ileanna Douglas) hypnotizes him, that he is a "receiver" capable of seeing spirits and split-second glimpses of past and future events. It's a torturous gift to have--especially since his friendly Chicago neighborhood possesses a dark secret--and Bacon plays the role with an appropriate mixture of obsession and internalized torment.Similarity to The Sixth Sense applies only to the basic premise and the character of Bacon's young son. Otherwise, this is more of a hard-edged journey of self-discovery, marital crisis, and recovery, with Bacon's wife (played by the highly underrated Kathryn Erbe) involved in an underdeveloped subplot about a group of people who share Bacon's gift as paranormal "receivers." Furthering his career as a writer-director of intelligent thrillers, David Koepp makes a few missteps in pacing and thematic overkill, but overall Stir of Echoes is a sharp, sensitive thriller that unfolds to reveal a dramatically satisfying solution to its mystery. --Jeff Shannon
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