Domestic Disturbance
Originally published in Hype Magazine
Director: Harold Becker
Starring: John Travolta, Vince Vaughn, Matt O’Leary, Teri Polo, Steve Buscemi
Have you ever seen a major Hollywood star defy gravity? Look out the window—there’s John Travolta falling from the stars, and he’s falling faster than anybody thought possible. Once upon a time, after one failed career, Quentin Tarantino gave the disco-king a chance at a second life in ‘Pulp Fiction’ and Travolta blew Hollywood away. After following up over the next few years with further memorable roles in films such as ‘Get Shorty’, ‘Face/Off’ and ‘Primary Colours’, something strange has happened recently. With his scientology creeping in at the edges in the worst film that nobody has ever seen, ‘Battlefield Earth’, and the worst haircut of 2001 in the inexcusable ‘Swordfish’, Vinnie Barbarino seems to have lost his legendary charisma. ‘Domestic Disturbance’ signals another low for a rapidly fading star — he is outshone by the wooden stylings of Vince Vaughn, Hollywood’s most uninspiring leading man (editor’s note, five years on: Vince found his feet in the frat pack, and now I love him muchly).
Veteran director Harold Becker (‘Sea of Love’, ‘City Hall’, ‘Taps’) should know better than to turn out a morally questionable b-grade thriller at this stage of his career, given a reputation for psychological thrillers that are both mature and suspenseful. Screenwriter Lewis Colick (‘October Sky’, ‘Ghosts of Mississipi’) also has a fair share of strong material under his belt, including the inexplicably brilliant ‘Judgment Night’. If nothing else, ‘Domestic Disturbance’ is proof that talent don’t mean nothing if you don’t use it.
Frank Morrison (Travolta) is an impossibly nice boat-builder in a small coastal city with hints of a drinking problem in his past. His twelve year-old son Danny (Matt O’Leary) lives with ex-wife Susan (Teri Polo — ‘Meet the Parents’), who is about to marry Rick Barnes (Vaughn), a wealthy newcomer to the town. In this little triangle, everybody gets along famously. Frank even helps Danny, who is wary of Rick’s enew dad’ status, to accept inevitable change as life marches on. But when a mysterious character from Rick’s past (Steve Buscemi) shows up on the wedding day, darkness begins to creep in at the edges of this wholesome character. Then Danny witnesses Rick committing a brutal murder, and nobody believes him, even the police, because he is a little brat who likes to make things up so his mum and new dad can split up. Enter ass-kicking real dad, no longer just a gentle boat-builder but bona fide hero, solving mysteries and pulping psycho-killer heads.
‘Domestic Disturbance’ is the same tired evil stepfather story, pursuing the line that any woman who chooses to remarry should suffer horrible consequences. Not a single original piece of dialogue is spoken in the entire film, as the cast plod through an ocean of clichEs looking positively bored. Only Buscemi is vaguely watchable, but even he delivers his eslimy weasel’ role with a certain bemused air. Despite laughable attempts to give his hero a dark side, Travolta’s character comes off as a ludicrously good guy, trained only to innocently paint boats and spout silly dialogue. Vaughn is even less scary here than we was in ‘Psycho’, and when the film takes a turn towards slasher territory in the final act, not even the twelve year-old O’Leary can muster up enough terror to seem afraid of him.
As cornball thrillers with simple moral messages go, ‘Domestic Disturbance’ offers few surprises. I learned that stepfathers are evil, police are stupid, twelve year-old boys never lie and that you should always listen to father, as father knows best. Let us hope that the once important Travolta has no plans to sink even lower on the Hollywood scale.