What Lies Beneath2000

Zemeckis-fest And now for something completely different.  Well, not actually. If you pay attention, Zemeckis is quite good at making thrilling sequences, but usually, he tempers it with comedy. This movie however is dry as a bone.  We have kind of a trifecta here with Contact, Cast Away, and What Lies Beneath, with Forrest Gump serving as the transition between the comedy adventure Zemeckis and the more mature contemporary dramatic Zemeckis of the Y2K era. This movie definitely has a lot in common with Contact, though for me, it’s just not as interesting.  So in the beginning, it starts as this woman in the window type plot, but by the end, that has absolutely nothing to do with the plot besides, I guess, an emotional connection. In the end, the real mystery just isn’t very surprising, and I wish it had a bigger connection to what we believe is going on in the beginning, but that is literally only a red herring.  I know Zemeckis is definitely capable of making a good mystery, and it’s not that this is bad; I think compared to others of the time, it’s quite good; it’s just definitely overly long. With an edit, it would definitely play a little better.  I can understand why it ranks lower compared to Zemeckis’ other work being so different, but I also think this would be another director’s best film. Honestly, I appreciate this new quality of film from Zemeckis, and while this isn’t my favorite, I’m excited to see what intelligent, mature film he makes next.