Don't Say a Word

Michael Douglas is "tremendous" (Tribune News Services) inthe psychological thriller "in the classic Hitchcock tradition" (The New York Observer). When The daughter of a prominent new York psychiatrist (Douglas) is kidnapped, his only hope for her safe return is to pry a 6-digit number from the memory of a troubled teenage girl - and time is running out!

Adapted from Andrew Klavan's bestselling suspense novel, Don't Say a Word is a suitable companion to director Gary Fleder's earlier hit Kiss the Girls, with solid performances serving a plot that begins promisingly. The tension starts when the daughter of a topnotch New York psychiatrist (Michael Douglas) is kidnapped by a bitter ex-con (Sean Bean) with an old score to settle. Aided by an unwitting colleague (Oliver Platt), Douglas can save his daughter by extracting crucial information from a traumatized patient (Brittany Murphy), while his bedridden wife (Famke Janssen) and a tenacious detective (Jennifer Esposito) do their part to solve the mystery. Fleder pushes all the routine buttons with effectively somber style, so Don't Say a Word will satisfy anyone with a preference for high-anxiety thrillers, even as it grows increasingly conventional; it's entertaining without being particularly original. It's a by-the-book programmer, just right for rainy-day viewing. --Jeff Shannon