COLD CREEK MANOR
Released: September 19, 2003
Every once in a while, a great film director needs to make a mortgage payment or wants to buy a new car. What do they do for cash? They pull a director-for-hire job. Rather than labour over a personal project that may or may not hit it big with the masses, sometimes it's just easier to direct a sure thing. Or at least something that'll hit the top 5 on opening weekend and stick for a week or two. Anything that gets a decent box office. It doesn't really matter what it is. Mike Figgis is the director in question this time around. He's responsible for great fare like "Leaving Las Vegas", "Timecode" and "Internal Affairs" - meaning we KNOW he can do better. While technically it looks very good and sounds great (Figgis composed the score in addition to directing), this is standard cat and mouse chase-the-killer kind of retread storyline we know all too well. He does manage a good cast including Dennis Quaid, Sharon Stone, Stephen Dorff, Juliette Lewis and Christopher Plummer. Jodie Foster's daughter in "Panic Room" (Kristen Stewart) also appears. A family relocates from the big city to a dilapidated house in the country that was once a grand estate. As they begin to renovate the place with the help of the psycho killer former owner, they discover their new home is full of bad memories that won't go away. The decent establishing scenes lead us to a silly bunch of scenes that defy logic and barely pass as entertainment for a viewer older than 5. Figgis will do another great movie but "Cold Creek Manor" is simply a way for the director to get a pay check and pay off some bills...
118 Minutes
Touchstone/Buena Vista