This movie was one of those brought to my attention by "my recommendations" on Netflix. Trusting their recommendations is either hit or miss. Usually the latter of the two. Domestic Disturbance wasn't too bad though. At a run time of about an hour and a half, it has a perfect length. Just long enough to hold your attention and not drag things on unnecessarily.
Domestic Disturbance is about a family that has recently gone through a divorce and has one 12 year old boy (Danny) in common. The mother (Susan) and father (Frank) seem to have had a very amicable divorce and have the best interest of their child at heart. You quickly find out that Danny acts out and has a tendency to lie in attempt to get his parents attention.
Next comes Susan's boyfriend Rick Barnes. You see Frank and Rick have a pretty pleasant interchange between each other when attending one of Danny's basketball games. Danny goes off and ditches his basketball game and ends up at a nearby police station. Here you find out more of Danny's mischievous past and his white lies he likes to tell. The movie was believable up until this point. Frank is scheduled to take Danny out boating one Saturday. Susan suggests to Danny that it would be a good idea if Frank would bring Rick along. Now I'm sure there have been amicable divorces and parents that do this type of thing, I just don't know of any or have heard of any myself. Frank complains a little and in the next scene, sure enough, all three guys are on a boat together. Rick comes off like a nice guy and tells Frank "You know I'd never try to take your place with Danny".
Eventually Susan and Rick marry each other. Danny puts up a stink and doesn't want to go see him mom get married again. Frank decides to attend the wedding for Danny's sake and does. Very mature on his part, however I just haven't seen too many ex's do that in real life.
During the wedding a past associate (Ray) of Rick comes out of the woodwork. Now we start to learn about Rick's past and what he's done. Turns out that Rick isn't who he said he is and owes Ray money. Ray is eager to get his money and Rick will do anything not to give it up, including murder.
That’s where I’ll leave the details about the movie. In case you hadn’t see it before like myself, you’re better off watching the entire thing and not just reading what I wrote about it.
The storyline, minus a few exceptions was pretty believable. Frank who is oh so caring about Danny goes way beyond being "friends" with his ex-wife Susan at times leaving you with a yeah, right' during certain moments. Other than that, it had enough to keep my attention. As I mentioned the movie was only about an hour and a half long. Kind of short by today's standards. It did a good job in the amount of time it ran though.
John Travolta has never really impressed me as an actor. Neither have the other actors in this film, minus Steve Buscemi whose role was short lived. They were all standard performances, nothing earth shattering.
Domestic Disturbance isn't a movie that needs any special effects and minus a building burning or some fake blood you won't find any here.
Now usually I don't have an issue with audio. Here I did at times. The synchronization with the voices seemed pretty off at times. There were two to three times where it looked like one of the characters said F***, but the audio was changed for something more kind like friggin'. The next line out of the same characters mouth had a bullsh** or similar obscenity and it was right there unedited. Almost like they were getting some scenes ready for a TV broadcast and had accidentally mixed them up. It's no biggie, just something I noticed.
Overall, Domestic Disturbance is something to add to your Netflix or Blockbuster que if you haven't seen it before. It's nothing worth running to the video store for, but if you can have it mailed to you, then why not?
"Domestic Disturbance" opens November 2, 2001 and is rated PG13. Thriller. Directed by Harold Becker. Written by Lewis Colick, William S. Comanor . Starring John Travolta, Teri Polo, Steve Buscemi, Matt OLeary.
