Domestic Disturbance

Plot synopsis:
Susan Morrison (Teri Polo), recently divorced from her husband Frank (John Travolta) who is a struggling boat builder, is getting married to an industrialist who is younger and wealthier. His name is Rick Barnes (Vince Vaughn). Danny (Matt O'Leary), Susan and Frank's 12 year old son is clearly unhappy with his mother re-marrying. The revelation that Susan and Rick are expecting a baby, worsens the situation.Susan asks Frank to allow Rick to go sailing with him and Danny, to help Danny bond with and accept Rick as a stepfather.After the marriage and a brief improvement in Danny and Rick's relationship, Danny begins to dislike him once again. During a game of catch between the two, Rick clearly becomes agitated with Danny's ambivalent playing style and starts criticizing him harshly, as well as dealing some hard throws toward Danny.Danny learns about the new baby when he overhears Susan and Rick talking about it. He's very upset and wants to go talk to his father. Susan tells him no, so he sneaks out of his room and stows away in Rick's Chevy Suburban, as Rick announced he needed to go take care of some business downtown, and that was close to where Frank lived.Rick drives to a small motel and picks up a man named Ray Coleman (Steve Buscemi), who'd earlier attended the wedding unannounced, claiming to be an ex-business associate of Rick. Rick and Ray had also met earlier at the motel and had a discussion about their time in prison together and some money that Rick owed Ray. Rick drives Ray to a brickworks warehouse, telling Ray that he had hidden the money there, but once inside the building, Rick stabs Ray to death and he places the body in a kiln and incinerates it.Danny witnesses all this and was nearly discovered, first by Ray and then by Rick, but he manages to escape outside in the rain and runs to Frank's house. Frank hears the story and takes Danny to the police department to report the murder.Rick is widely considered a pillar of the local community, as he has invested plenty of money in the area, whereas Danny has a history of lying and misdemeanors. Plus, there's no evidence that Ray Coleman existed or had been murdered. So, Rick is not arrested.Frank, however, believes his son because Danny has never lied to him. Frank also had initial suspicions about Rick, stemming from Rick's notable unease around Coleman at the wedding ceremony.Because of Danny's continuing fear of Rick, and the lack of serious interest by police Sgt. Edgar Stevens (Ruben Santiago-Hudson) in any further investigating, Frank does some investigating of his own. He tracks down the motel where Ray Coleman had stayed, he learns of Coleman's criminal past which leads him to Rick's real name and criminal past. Frank learns that Rick's real name is Jack Parnell and he's a criminal who was acquitted while his partners, which included Coleman, were convicted.Rick realizes that Frank has been snooping around and is getting too close for comfort, so he sneaks up on Frank at the boat shop and clubs him unconscious, then sets the boat shop on fire. He accidentally sets his shirt on fire too, burning part of his arm. Frank regains consciousness in time to escape the conflagration.Danny and Susan watch a story about the boat house fire on the news, and Susan is surprised to see Rick in the bathroom treating the burn on his arm. She sneaks back to Danny and tells him to get ready to leave. Rick encounters them on the way out and asks where they are going. Susan tells him that they just learned about the boat shop fire and Danny wanted to go check on his father. Rick offers to drive, but Susan says Danny would prefer he not go with them.Just as Danny and Susan are in the car in the garage, the phone in the house rings. It's Frank calling. Rick answers but Frank hangs up the phone. Rick sees who it was on the caller ID. He rushes out to the garage where Susan is taking to Frank on her cell phone. Rick pulls Susan out of the car and gets in the driver's seat. Susan slams the car door on his arm and she and Danny escape into the house. They lock all the doors and try to call the police, but Rick has disconnected the phone line. He then crashes through a window into the house and struggles with Susan, knocking her down and out.Rick is preparing to take Danny hostage and make his escape, but Frank arrives and they engage in a brawl in the garage. Rick seems to have the upper hand until Danny, even though his hands are tied behind his back, is able to catapult his body into the back of Rick's legs, knocking him off balance so that his next swing at Frank with a crow bar instead hits the electrical fuse box and he is electrocuted.Susan experiences a miscarriage during the struggle with Rick, so there will be no daily reminder for her and her family of the bad experience they all had.

Tags: violence, neo noir, murder

Review:
This was a decent thriller with good-guy "Frank Morrison" (John Travolta) trying to save his former family from the dangerous new husband.
Definitely a movie that will entertain but a one-look film and nothing more, especially with the ending being as predictable as it turned out..
There are points that seem implausible and ask the audiences' indulgence but they are forgivable and do not detract from the story Travolta and Vaughn give solid performances and for me, Buscemi is always fun to watch.
Travolta decently played the good-guy divorced father, trying to protect his teenage son from an apparent murderer.The murderer/stepfather was played typically by Vaugh who's portrayed serial killer roles in other movies such as "Clay Pigeons" and the remake of Hitchcock's classic thriller, "Psycho".
A rerun of every domestic situation thriller of the past two decades (everything from "Pacific Heights" to "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle"), its one saving grace is its excellent performances: Matt O'Leary, who was also fantastic as Fenton in the brilliant "Frailty", gives a very intelligent mature perfromance; John Travolta makes a likeable hero, while Vince Vaughan is good as the creepy villian (much better than his camp performance as Norman Bates in Gus Van Sant's pointless remake of "Psycho"); and Teri Polo does the best she can with the role of damsel-in-distress.
There's nothing that pisses me off more in a movie than when someone fails to put up an adequate argument on their behalf when they're being accused of something.It's like they either have the character act like a total maniac by flying off the handle when denying what they're being accused of (so obviously the other party will of course not believe them now), or they say the completely wrong things and understate their case, and it is extremely frustrating to watch because you're just sitting there screaming, "WHY DON'T YOU JUST SAY THIS!!" When that kid was in the interrogation room, his best method of convincing people that a murder took place was by weakly repeating: "look, I know what I saw OK.." Yeah that's gonna convince people.
The film deals about a divorced father(an agreeable role for John Travolta)named Frank, he's boat builder and shares custody with his ex-spouse(Teri Polo) of their son Danny(a newcomer Matt O'Leary).
Most of the acting seem excellent with special mention to Vince Vaughn as suave suitor turned to menacing new father and Steven Buscemi in a secondary role as seedy friend.The film is suspenseful though predictable with the final confrontation between good daddy and bad dad.
Predictable (you know exactly what the last scene will be like right from the start), contrived (the police really should have looked harder for evidence), but well-made, extremely well-acted (especially by Vince Vaughn) and psychologically accurate (the "baseball practice" scene was perfectly written and played).
I guess John Travolta's bad movie  streak he started with "Battlefield Earth" is still going on.
But Vince Vaughn's bad guy drill is getting old(Clay Pigeons,Psycho anyone?) and Travolta still plays the good guy(expect for Battlefield Earth).
The movie's premise is not new, the script takes the more traveled route just to please a larger part of the audience that loves some easy tension, those moments when you can play the psychic with family and friends while watching together, saying "That character is going to die now" things like that.Once again, there's a boy who because of his constant lies no one will believe when he finally says the truth and needs help from his parents.
In this case, the boy (Matt O'Leary) is in trouble after being the sole witness of a crime committed by Rick, his stepfather (Vince Vaughn), arranged for life now that he recently married with Susan (Teri Polo), who divorced the boy's father (John Travolta).
The movie would be interesting if the writers take the father away and let the kid try to make things for himself, because he knows how to cause trouble and he could play fire with fire against his step dad.
Matt O'Leary and Steve Buscemi (as the mysterious Ray Coleman) are the best in the show; Vaughn and Travolta got a little bit ridiculous playing heavy clichéd figures, evil versus good.
"Domestic Disturbance" is quite good, watchable but it's light years from being a helluva of a movie.10 years later and we're still waiting for another Becker's film, back in shape, but it looks like we're not gonna see that so early and this might be his last picture.
It could have been a bit better, but it could have been a LOT worse.And now on to the acting as I won't even waste time telling you what you already know about the movie and the plot/storyline.
The plot was easy to understand, which was great because I was not in the mood for any complex films.Vince Vaughn was impressive in playing a psychopathic father.
When Danny claims he has seen Rick murder his friend, Frank is the only one who believes his son.By choosing to let us in on the fact that Rick is indeed "a bad man", this drama becomes more a matter of time rather than a film that is packed with twists and intrigues.
To fill a few hours with something undemanding and by-the-numbers, this is probably just good enough to do you as a genre film but a different delivery and better script could have produced something better and given Vaughn and Travolta more to do..
i read a majority of reviews for this on imdb and a few people really liked it and im thinking do u people know what a good movie is?.john travolta,vince vaughn and steve buscemi are very decent actors and try in this one but havent got the material to work with.try not to laugh when vaughn notices the phone book in travoltas car i couldent help it.one of the worst of 2002.
Frank Morrison (John Travolta) and his ex-wife Susan (Teri Polo) have a 12 year old son Danny (Matthew O'Leary) who is taking their breakup and Susan's impending marriage to local hot shot Rick Barnes (Vince Vaughn) very hard.
A so-so thriller where John Travolta discovers that his ex-wife is about to marry a killer (a convincing Vince Vaughn) and his child is in danger.
I already watched it several months ago, but I didn't really remember details.I must say that all of the actors, especially Matt O'Leary, act astonishingly realistic, including their facial expressions and gestures.I like this movie because it covers several really important facts of family life I partially can understand quite well due to personal experience.Worth watching in any case!.
When you see the coverbox to DD, one easily falls for a blockbuster hit with John Travolta and Vince Vaughn (both respected actors) in this dramatic DVD.Vaughn plays a creepy step-father with a shady past, which he keeps secret from his new wife and step-son.
Vaughn's character is creepy as he should be, but again, Travolta in most of this film is a lot like a more responsible-sounding character from Pulp Fiction (the drunken scene when he goes to the bar and acts aloof is exactly the same from Pulp Fiction).
The kid in this is great about acting scared and everything, but again, every kid that year was acting this way.I recommend it only for fans of Vince Vaughn because I was greatly disappointed by Travolta's performance (and hair...my god, what's up with those two tentacles of hair coming from his forehead in this movie?) Decent but average..
A perfect example of the type of film where every character has to keep acting like an idiot to keep the movie going.
The kid (who, by the way, resembles new stepfather Vince Vaughn more so than John Travolta!) is 12-years-old going on 27, while John himself looks wrung out.
It has John Travolta is the caring father who believes his son, when his son tells him that he witnessed Vince Vaughn MURDER Steve Bushemi (which he did).
Teri Polo was shallow, really contributing nothing to the story other than the classic role of mother who will not believe, while child actor Matt O'Leary definitely needed more time with an acting coach before landing this role.
All of these paid actors were going through their parts, but not into their characters, which ultimately flawed the film.What happens when you have actors not reaching their potential and a story that seems like it could be a "Made-for-TV-Movie"?
Father who loves his son, who cannot let go of a previous life (although it seemed that in the film Travolta and Polo were OK with there divorce), who doesn't trust his ex-wife's new beau.
Domestic Disturbance sees John Travolta as Frank Morrison, a man who discovers his child's new step father (Vince Vaughn) isn't exactly what he pretends to be; and as he digs up the truth he realises he has to save his son from danger.The performances of the cast are all good, and in particular Travolta's performance is very engaging, the story is interesting and the plot develops quickly and keeps moving, so your unlikely to feel bored at any point.The problem is the lack of care taken to sustain any mystery in the plot, it's all too obvious from almost the very beginning of the film; and this destroys the thriller element of this mediocre thriller.5/10.
,but alas..The story is the umpteenth story of a brave father estranged from his bubble head wife -how dumb she must be not to realize she married someone dangerous!-and his courageous brat.Vincent Vaughn is the villain and he sometimes looks like a cartoon character.The movie becomes,at its worst,a ridiculous remake of "night of the hunter" (1955),Charles Laughton's unique masterpiece, which would take place in the "modern world" but without Mitchum,Winters and Gish.I really wonder how producers can waste money for such a hackneyed screenplay..
Nobody believes him except his father (John Travolta), who is the only character in the movie who isn't pathetically dumb.
By the numbers thriller about a divorced boat builder (John Travolta), who's son (Matthew O'Leary) ends up living with a murderous stepfather (Vince Vaughn).
It also ends very suddenly as if director Harold Becker thought;no,this is taking too long time-I want to finish this movie now.The finale lasted only 5 minutes.I was VERY disappointed.
Travolta is OK,but nothing more.His career is beginning to go downhill,it looks like,after failures like "The General`s Daughter" and the extremely bad "Battlefield Earth".No,don`t waste your time with this.It`s not exciting for one minute.Poor movie and a stupid Steve Buscemi-he should have known better...Rating-2/10.
Travolta, as the good guy who believes his son's story that Vaugh's character murdered a man, is passable.
The production values are great, and John Travolta is certainly engaging enough, but the two-dimensional Vince Vaughn and the always creepy Steve Buscemi conspire with the director to keep this one from ever rising above a certain level of mediocrity.
I went to the theatre the evening that this movie came out expecting a suspenseful, action movie starring Vince Vaughn and John Travolta.
Seeing a suspense film starring John Travolta was something I never expected because I'll never forget him in the Look Who's Talking Series!
What a shame this predictable dross had some potential but decided to cop out after an hour and 25 mins,when you see Steve Buscemi and John Travolta in the cast you expect an attempt at quality,what you get here is a third rate TV movie that rushes along at breakneck speed to an ending you've seen a thousand times before.Villains who have committed crimes that require intelligence and patientce under pressure suddenly behave like irrational joyriders making every mistake in the book.This could have been a tense nerve jangling thriller potentially,why not make use of the other two villains in Buscemi's gang,after the mysterious arrival of Buscemi at the wedding you are too quickly given the makeup of the films direction and already predicting the ending rather than  pondering whether the Vince Vaughn character is good or bad.Teri Polo is too young to be a Mother of a child this age or seems to be or perhaps just miscast an older actress with a better resume might fulfilled the role more successfully.Overall the makers have a rushed thriller that needed timing and patience,if this is a book and they have stayed loyal to it's format then why do it in the first place?
John Travolta was excellent at playing the heroic father while Vince Vaughn is always the perfect villian.
DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE (2001) ** John Travolta, Vince Vaughn, Teri Polo, Matthew O' Leary, Steve Buscemi, Chris Ellis, Nick Loren.
By-the-numbers thriller with Travolta as the father of an 11year old (O'Leary) whose habits for lying and juvenile delinquency causes friction when he claims his new stepfather (Vaughn) is a common criminal up to no good.
Travolta's engaging performance and Vaughn's creepy turn are the only things worth checking out in this predictable melodrama that offers a few twists but no real payoff in the end.
Terri Polo plays the ex-wife and Vince Vaughn is the new man who enters her life.The story is average in creating suspense, but mines some real emotions that people often have: the lack of control that a non-custodial parent feels regarding the well-being of a child; the helpless feeling of a child in the household of a menacing adult; the confusion of a parent who is torn between irreconcilable interests.Its mediocre manipulation of these emotions and the fears that come from them is the primary reason for the film's substandard quality.
In "Domestic Disturbance," Danny (Matthew O'Leary) is having trouble coping with his mother's second marriage to the creepy Rick Barnes (Vince Vaughn).
Thankfully, his trusted, recovering alcoholic, good-guy dad (John Travolta) believes his wild story, and even when Danny tries to convince him to leave well enough alone, can't.In all honesty, "Domestic Disturbance" is a garden variety, by-the-numbers thriller.
In the movie, Vince Vaughn marries John Travolta's ex-wife, and he is a pillar of the community.
Recommend watching this movie to see the fine acting by young Matt O'Leary and by Vince Vaughn.
The first thing I noticed when I started watching John Travolta's Domestic Disturbance, was how cheap the film stock looked.
It seems like the writers and director just ignored all the possible ways they could take the premise and decided they would just make a film that looks perfect for the USA network.The best example I can use to describe the laziness of Domestic Disturbance, is the final scene.
To call it a thriller seems wrong at all: it's a cinematic exercise in boredom and deja vu.Domestic Disturbance stars John Travolta as Frank Morrison, a boat builder who recently divorced from his former wife Susan (Teri Polo).
Not only that, Domestic Disturbance is the kind of film where for events to develop everyone has to behave like a moron: Susan doesn't believe his son's words one bit at first.
It's obvious that with this kind of material even a very good performance would feel insipid.Domestic Disturbance is certainly not one of the worst movies I have ever seen.
Here, though, instead of being a man, it's a young boy, Danny (Matt O'Leary), son of Frank (John Travolta).
and I won't tell you the ending, but bear in mind, this movie is one fat ugly cliche and Travolta is the good guy.
It's variation on the "little boy who cried wolf" story and it has it's share of contrivances, but Travolta is predictably compelling as the nice-guy dad (SO nice that it provides one of the movie's most nagging questions: WHY did his wife see fit to divorce him?)and Vaughn is appropriately creepy as the new husband and stepdad with a shady past and sinister present.Not a classic, but given the talent involved, not bad either.
In fact, it's so bad that it's entertaining.DISTURBANCE is about a divorced couple (John Travolta, Terri Polo).
The movie is about a man (Vince Vaughn) who marries John Travolta's ex-wife.
John Travolta Plays a good guy again..
John Travolta is good as the hero, but it is Vince Vaughn who is especially impressive as the villain.
Steve Buscemi is excellent in his role, however short it is.Many people have commented that they did not like the ending of the movie.
There were plenty of other well done and fairly intense parts in the movie, mostly because of the evilness that is Vince Vaughn.The worst part of DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE is that it is predictable, just as many thrillers of this kind are.
However, once Vaughn's character murders Buscemi (in front of the kid of course) the movie starts to go downhill.
Vince Vaughn was perfect for the role of the evil stepfather and John Travolta was perfect!
Oh you'll find out when you see it.John Travolta is back and better than ever (he's actually HUMAN this time), He plays a father of an 11-year-old son with a tendency to lie.
After the 11-year-old son Danny sees Rick kill someone, will anybody believe him?With an ending that is to die for, and a plot that keeps you asking for more, "Domestic Disturbance" is one of my new favorite movies.
Vince Vaughn (Rick Barnes) is almost as impressive as Travolta in the movie.
The kid (Matt O'Leary) plays his part well enough to be believable, my favorite character was probably Teri Polo, she has the only good acting skills in this movie.
(and it's got Vince Vaughn, still in his I can be in serious movies faze (It's so great he went to comedies!)).Anyway the stories the same old song and dance as other lame thrillers, but it's something to watch when bored.
This movie was so predictable, i mean, from the beginning you knew that vince vaughn was some kind of a bad guy.
In "Domestic Disturbance" a seemingly perfect step dad (Vaughn) comes between a happily divorced couple (Travolta & Polo) and their son (O'Leary) and murder  follows.