Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

Hide and Seek Blu-ray Movie Review

Duck and Cover

Reviewed by Michael Reuben September 22, 2011

Good thrillers should be rewatchable even after you've learned their secrets. Both The Usual Suspects and The Sixth Sense remain terrific entertainments, regardless of whether you know all about Keyser Söze or understand why little Cole Sear sees dead people. But what can you say about a would-be thriller that, even on a first viewing, telegraphs its big reveals, underlines its red herrings, and tries to disguise the bad odor by slathering on a thick layer of atmosphere, like spicy sauce on a cheap cut of meat?

The first time I saw the film, I couldn't fathom how anyone had attracted such a five-star cast to such a threadbare script. But the extras on this disc make it clear that Robert De Niro was one of the first to be attached, and everyone wants to work with De Niro. So along came Melissa Leo (now herself an Oscar winner), Amy Irving, Famke Janssen, Elisabeth Shue, Dylan Baker and wunderkind Dakota Fanning, who was only nine years old when filming began. With talent of that calibre, a master director like Martin Scorsese might have cooked up a pulpy masterpiece of self-reference gone made like Shutter Island. But Hide and Seek got handed to actor-turned-director John Polson (he was Tom Cruise's supply man in the second Mission Impossible), and while Polson is capable, he's no Scorsese.

Still, exploitation cinema has always been reliably profitable. The image of a hollow-eyed, terrified and possibly demonic Fanning, combined with the tagline "Come out, come out, wherever you are" (evoking an earlier and iconic role by De Niro), propelled Hide and Seek to a modestly successful domestic box office and even greater international sales. And now Fox has inflicted the film on us again, this time on Blu-ray.

On New Year's Day, David Callaway (De Niro), a psychologist, and his wife Allison (Irving), take their daughter, Emily (Fanning), to Central Park. That evening, after putting Emily to bed, Allison Callaway takes a bath. At 2:06 a.m., David Callaway awakes from troubled dreams to discover his wife is missing from their bed. He goes to their bathroom and finds her lifeless body in the bloody bath water, an apparent suicide. Behind him, Emily stands in the bathroom doorway, frozen in shock.

Weeks later, Emily remains badly traumatized, despite intensive therapy from one of David's former students, Katherine (Janssen). David decides that his daughter needs a complete change of scene and rents a large house in rural upstate Woodland, a summer vacation community that is all but deserted during the winter season. David and Emily are greeted at the house by Sheriff Hafferty (Baker), who has keys to all the local houses (suspect alert!), and a real estate agent, Haskins (David Chandler), who certainly has keys to this house (suspect alert!). As David will shortly learn, his neighbors are a married couple, Laura and Steven (Leo and Robert John Burke), who are still coping with the loss of a daughter about Emily's age (multiple suspect alert!). And before you can say "rebound", David has made the acquaintance of a young divorcee named Elizabeth (Shue), whose niece he tries to recruit as a possible playmate for Emily. Emily's Wednesday Adams-like demeanor sends the niece running from the house, but Elizabeth finds David sufficiently intriguing to return, causing Emily to become hostile and suspicious (suspect/victim alert!).

Mysterious things begin to happen almost immediately after David and Emily arrive, but since Emily is already behaving strangely for a little girl and the environment is new, at first it all blends together. Soon, though, even David has to acknowledge that something is amiss. Emily's mood swings become more pronounced; her behavior keeps changing; her most treasured dolls are mauled and tossed into the garbage; her drawings become violent; mysterious writing appears on bathroom walls; windows painted solidly shut are found open; and lights go on and off without warning. Of special concern is Emily's new imaginary friend, "Charlie", who seems to be more than just a psychological projection.

As if all these human suspects weren't enough, the script also floats supernatural possibilities via a mysterious path into the woods behind the house. It leads to a forbidding cave that Emily may or may not have entered. But I can't describe any further developments, or offer additional analysis of why the film fails, without spoiling the experience for first-time viewers who want to judge for themselves. Let's just say that director Polson, and his screenwriter, Ari Schlossberg (who, according to the commentary, wrote many variations of the script), labor so hard to keep viewers guessing that they undercut themselves, like a bad liar who trips himself up with too many fabrications that contradict each other. In the end, they're literally forced to take back much of what they've shown you, which is the last refuge of poor storytelling. (On this, my second viewing, I paid close attention to see whether the reversal is in any way grounded in the narrative, as it is -- with great care -- in The Sixth Sense. Not in the slightest.)

Hide and Seek Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The cinematographer for Hide and Seek was Dariusz Wolski, who was an interesting choice, because his specialty is fantastical landscapes of all varieties, from The Crow and Dark City for Alex Proyas, to the four Pirates of the Caribbean films for Bruckheimer & Co., to Sweeney Todd and Alice in Wonderland for Tim Burton. In Hide and Seek, Wolski is photographing real places and people, but at angles that are slightly off and with lighting and focal lengths that lend just enough unease to the scene so that the viewer is never comfortable. Whatever problems may exist in the script, Wolski's work cannot be faulted.

Despite the film's being made in 2005, there are no credits for a digital intermediate. Nevertheless, the 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray reflects the same level of quality that one would expect from a fine-grained, well-preserved, recent negative or interpositive, scanned and color-corrected with the latest technology. The image is finely detailed, revealing visual minutia of clothing, leaves, branches and facial expressions. Black levels are also impressive, allowing detail in shadow areas to show through, while black areas of the frame (which occur regularly) remain opaque. Bright colors are rare in the world of Hide and Seek, which is dominated by earth tones and a generally somber palette, but the naturalness of fleshtones confirms the transfer's accuracy (except, of course, for Dakota Fanning, who is supposed to look funereal). I did not see any compression, DNR or other filtering artifacts, and the only element that kept this transfer from a perfect score was a slight but occasional aliasing or shimmer in a few shots, usually involving dense forest.

Hide and Seek Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS lossless 5.1 mix makes restrained but effective use of the surrounds to convey the country environment, with birds and other woodland sounds gently placed to the rear as a reminder of the natural ambiance but without unduly calling attention to themselves. In more active and aggressive scenes (and I don't want to get more specific than that), the surrounds tend to be used in concert with the fronts to create a seamless environment of sound that spreads outward to immerse the listener. Bass extension is powerful where it needs to be, but this is not a track for showing off the subwoofer. Dialogue remains clear and generally centered, but John Ottman's score has been cleverly folded into the mix so that portions of it seem to remain in front while others seem to surround you -- a sensation that adds to the general mood of unease.

Hide and Seek Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Director John Polson, Editor Jeffrey Ford and Screenwriter Ari Schlossberg: The three collaborators have an easy rapport and speak continuously, ranging freely over the project's development as a "spec" script by Schlossberg, which went through multiple revisions; through the film's production, with interesting observations by both Polson and Ford on De Niro's working method; and into post-production, with extensive comments on how the film was built in the editing room. All three commentators are very much aware that the film's impact depends on diverting the audience's attention away from the real explanation for "Charlie" (Polson is explicit about this), but they seem to believe they've successfully accomplished the task. The commentary has optional subtitles in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.



• Alternate Endings (HD; 2.35:1; 6:24): There are four alternate endings, with optional commentary by the director, editor and writer. One of them is a minor (but significant) variation on the existing ending, but the other three explore several different tones.



• Deleted Scenes (SD; 2.35:1, non-enhanced; 19:18): There are fourteen scenes, with optional commentary by the same commentators. All of them are interesting, but they were either redundant or unnecessary. A scene between Emily and a babysitter is particularly good, as are several additional scenes between David and Elizabeth.



• The Making of Hide and Seek (SD; 1.33:1; 10:19): This is a typical EPK production, but it contains enough revealing footage to spoil the entire film and should not be watched in advance. Considering the relatively small size of the cast, it's surprising that so few of them are interviewed (Fanning and Dylan Baker among them). Director Polson is on hand, as is producer Barry Josephson.



• Previs Sequences (SD; 2.35:1, non-enhanced; 3:29): Narrated by Polson, this extra presents storyboards for three brief sequences that were considered but never filmed. Polson's explanation and footage from the film indicate exactly where they would have occurred, and since all three come from the last fifteen minutes of the film, they contain major spoilers.

Hide and Seek Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's not surprising that the filmmakers struggled with the ending of Hide and Seek. A film whose entire action depends on traumatizing a child -- graphically, multiple times, in excruciating detail rendered by one of the most talented child actors in recent memory -- requires some very fancy dancing before the perpetrators take their bow. If you listen to the commentary accompanying the various alternate endings, it's clear they understood the need to acknowledge the seriousness of the subject without sending everyone home depressed. I have no problem with stories that show bad things happening to children; fairy tales and myths have done that for centuries, but they did so as part of a genuine effort to make sense of the world and its hazards. Hide and Seek isn't interested in such endeavors. It puts Emily through the wringer for the sole purpose of giving an audience a thrill. (And lest anyone think I'm exaggerating, director Polson is explicit in his commentary that the cause of Emily's suffering should not be explained.) We all have a personal list of elements in film that make us queasy. Badly constructed narrative is my number one offense against good taste. But mistreating kids for kicks runs a close second.

For its technical quality, the Blu-ray of Hide and Seek is recommended, if you like that sort of thing. The film itself is most definitely not recommended.