Stir Of Echoes

After being hypnotized by his sister in law, a man begins seeing haunting visions of a girl's ghost and a mystery begins to unfold around her.

REVIEW: Kevin Bacon stars as a man who is very skeptical to the real powers of hypnotism. Going under during a party, Bacon comes back haunted by feelings that a murder has occurred near him recently. His son has the same visions and the two try to discover what happened to a neighborhood girl who disappeared years before. I understand very easily what director David Koepp is trying to do with this thriller. Mixing equal parts "Exorcist", domestic drama, and TBS original movie ham, Koepp strains to keep this mess afloat. It's an uphill battle, but "Echoes" is actually quite effective in it's initial moments. Koepp is a very seasoned screenwriter ("Jurassic Park", "Mission Impossible"), so the man knows a thing or two about pleasing an audience. When the Bacon character begins the journey into the unknown, the film is packed to the seams with spooky atmosphere and ambitious storytelling. It's very winning to see a movie that's actually trying to creep the audience out (a proven point due to the high level of "What the hell..." comments during the screening I attended). It's a majestic first half, and one that sets the film up for greatness. When the action turns to Bacon and the strain his madness puts on his marriage, it's there that the film unravels completely. What was once a creepy and effective thriller now has become a interminable bore. The resolution of the film, involving a slow rape sequence, is sickening on two levels. First being that simple fact that Koepp sinks to a new low by showing us the rape - very tasteful, isn't it? The second being that the movie uses "General Hospital" type theatrics to get out of, what I thought was, a very complex plot . It ends silly. Getting there is even worse. Koepp had something going but loses it in the closure, what accounts for this I will never know. Based on a book, "Echoes" falls apart very cinematically, not like a book would. It seems like a studio wouldn't let Koepp have his way with the entire movie. Kevin Bacon gets all the credit in the world with his acting. He usually can be relied on to show us very different characters in each movie he does. It's a talent that many do not even try to discover. In "Echoes", not much is asked of Bacon. And he returns the favor with one of his most forgettable performances. Kathryn Erbe portrays Bacon's wife and she fares better, but in the end her character never really mattered. Bad character actors like Kevin Dunn and Illeana Douglas round out the cast. Not the best group of performers, but this was not the best script. You decide who's at fault. "Stir Of Echoes" is a very forgettable thriller. A movie that might work for people who see 2 films a year. It's always shocking to see a film break apart like this. Koepp's last film "Trigger Effect" was a more carefully structured movie that was far more successful with half the dramatic raw materials. I hope Koepp can bounce back from this. He obviously can craft a crowdpleasing film, just not one so aggressive in it's intent to please.