What lies beneath

Domestic tranquility with a thin blue undercoating of foreboding surrounds much of the first third of the mystery-thriller "What Lies Beneath" (DreamWorks, PG-13, VHS/rental, DVD/$27), like a veil of early morning mist clinging to a lake.

Norman and Claire Spencer (Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer) are a handsome New England university couple with an idyllic lakeside home and a daughter on her way to college. They are looking forward to those bittersweet empty-nester years. Time for a little fun and liberation.

They are cuddly, enjoy a healthy sex life and gossiping about the new neighbors, a couple obviously at the ends of marital discord. But into their center of stillness come little voices. Claire hears things. Odd things happen. Doors open. Pictures fall. Ghostly reflections appear in mirrors and on water. A computer turns itself on and plays solitaire.

Someone is trying to tell Claire something, from the other side. Or, she could be crazy. There was an episode a year earlier in which she wrapped her car around a tree at 80 mph. Accident? Suicide? She takes Valium to sleep. She has a certain fragility about her.

Early on in the casual exposition of this tale, we`re treated to a very Hitchcock-esque episode in which Claire is certain that the new neighbor has murdered his wife and carted off her body. Very "Rear Window." Very misleading.

Scriptwriter Clark Gregg and director Robert Zemeckis ("Cast Away," "Forrest Gump") send us down a few misleading paths before the scent is picked up and the real hunt begins. Hunt for what?

It takes a long, long time to unmask the prey. This picture requires real patience and attention to detail.

It all unfolds, in good time. A brave thing to do in a movie in the era of the impatient Instant Gratification Generation.

Gregg and Zemeckis chose to tell their story the old-fashioned way - peeling off one layer of skin at a time. Each layer reveals a new clue, a new terror, a new twist, a new mystery. Perhaps Norman and Claire aren`t as happy as they appear on the surface. "I gave up everything! My life! My music!" she shouts at Norman at one point.

For the longest time we`re not even certain that a murder has occurred, much less that a murderer exists. Norman seems the loving, attentive husband - deeply concerned about his wife`s aberrations. Although, he is deeply distracted at the moment by a paper he`s about to deliver on a scientific research breakthrough. Right at the time that Claire becomes most demanding.

So maybe it is all a pathetic pitch for attention by Claire. Except for that missing grad student from a year ago.

If the first third is psychological terror a la Hitchcock, and the second third is mystery exposition, the final third is all contemporary horror, designed to make you jump clear out of your seat in fright and get your adrenaline pumping overtime.

"What Lies Beneath" is less a movie than an Expo of Scary Movie Technique. Notice the low camera angles, the change of lighting and music, the paranoid atmosphere, the artfully held facial metamorphosis from curiosity to realization and terror. Claire even does some of the dumb things that teens do in scary movies - like try to pull a phone out from under an inert killer, instead of bolting out the door to safety with the keys to the car. Think of a reverent, satire-free and largely humorless "Scary Movie."

A veteran director, Zemeckis knows how to cobble together a movie that moves along and keeps the audience`s attention. Look what he did with the tediousness of island survival in "Cast Away." He even made a volleyball look interesting.

You`ll get your jollies from "What Lies Beneath" but I doubt that Blockbuster will hit you for late fees, because you couldn`t bear to return it.

ALSO THIS WEEK

"Dinosaur" (Disney, PG, VHS/$27, DVD/$30) If I were the head of animation for Universal right about now, I`d give serious thought to scrapping or re-inventing the "Land Before Time" animation franchise, as delightful as it has been for youngsters. It just looks more than a bit archaic next to the 20-ton dino (make that dyno) that is Disney`s "Dinosaur." What a stunning piece of computer generated imagery! Actually, "Dinosaur" uses real backgrounds from such locations as Venezuela, California, Hawaii, Australia and Florida. Into this milieu the filmmakers dropped seamlessly 30 different species of prehistoric creatures. Naturally there is a very human-like story.

The hero of "Dinosaur" is an Iguanodon named Aladar (voiced by D.B. Sweeney) who is raised by a clan of lemurs on a remote island. A horrific meteor shower devastates their island - and much of the earth around them. A few of the lemurs escape to the mainland with Aladar and join a migrating collection of animals in search of safe grounds. The story is classic formula but the adrenaline-pumping action and visuals are something else again.

Among other notables who lend their voices to characters are Alfre Woodard, Ossie Davis, Max Casella, Julianna Margulies, Joan Plowright and Della Reese.

There are two DVD versions of "Dinosaur," both loaded with extra features. The single DVD ($30) contains audio and viewing options, four mini-features on the making of the movie and some game and educational features. The double-DVD ($40) also features two different audio commentary tracks and six sequences that were cut from the movie. Most of the second disc is devoted to illuminating the behind-the-scenes production process.

"Full Disclosure" (First Look, R, VHS/rental) Fred Ward is a hard-

drinking reporter with a sterling career that is going down the hatch, one bottle at a time. Into his custody falls a beautiful Palestinian assassin and the story of a lifetime. Unfortunately - well, fortunately for viewers - an FBI agent (Christopher Plummer) and a hit-woman (Penelope Ann Miller) pursue them. Guns and babes, can you ever go wrong on a Saturday night?

"Soloman & Gaenor" (Columbia TriStar, R, VHS/rental, DVD/$$30) This story of a love affair between a deeply religious Welsh girl and a Jewish itinerant salesman is set in the economically desperate Welsh Valley of 1911. Written and directed by Paul Morrison, "Soloman & Gaenor" was a 1999 Oscar nominee for foreign language films. The DVD contains a commentary track by Morrison and audio in English, Welsh and Yiddish (with English subtitles).

"The Eyes of Tammy Faye" (Universal, PG-13, DVD/$25, VHS/rental) Who better than drag queen RuPaul Charles to narrate/moderate this documentary look at the tragi-comic rise and falling mascara of the freakish TV evangelist Tammy Faye?

DVD UPDATE

"Space: 1999" (A&E, 2-vol., DVD/$40 per vol.) Martin Landau and Barbara Bain segued from "Mission: Impossible" to two TV seasons (1975-76) on the Lunar space station Moonbase Alpha, unfortunately adrift in space far from the gravitational pull of Mother Earth. Each DVD set contains six episodes. "Space: 1999" is remastered from the original 35mm films and contains some additional footage. This is the first time on DVD for the series, with more volumes due in the fall of 2001. A VHS tape set is also available but it contains only half the episodes.

"If Lucy Fell" (Columbia TriStar, R, DVD/$25) Oh, yeah, like Sarah Jessica Parker would have a hard time finding a stable romance. If she doesn`t, she and her neighbor pal (Eric Schaeffer) agree to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge. Also stars Ben Stiller, Elle MacPherson. First time on DVD.

"Glory: Special Edition" (Columbia TriStar, R, $30) Director Edward Zwick provides audio commentary for this outstanding Civil War epic. Other special features include widescreen picture-in-picture commentary by Zwick, a mini-feature, deleted scenes and production notes.

"Starry Night" (Universal, PG-13, DVD/$25) Vincent Van Gogh returns to life in modern-day Los Angeles, a bit awed at what his paintings are fetching on the marketplace. (He only sold one as a living artist 100 years ago.) Trouble is, he can`t convince anyone of his identity. Previously out on VHS.

(c) Copley News Service

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Author: Robert J. Hawkins