Domestic Disturbance

Domestic Disturbance is a 2001 thriller film directed by Harold Becker and stars John Travolta and Vince Vaughn. It co-stars Teri Polo, Matt O'Leary and Steve Buscemi.

Plot

Susan Morrison (Teri Polo), recently divorced from her husband Frank (John Travolta) who is a struggling ship builder, is getting married to a younger and wealthier 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 having 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 criticising him harshly as well as dealing some hard throws toward Danny. After finding out about the baby, Danny stows away in Rick's Chevy Suburban, planning to drop off it en route and visit his Dad. But while inside the car, he witnesses Rick murdering mysterious stranger Ray Coleman (Steve Buscemi), who earlier attended the wedding unannounced, claiming to be an ex-business associate of Rick. Danny reports the murder to Frank and the local police. Rick however, has managed to dispose of most of the evidence, and is widely considered a pillar of the local community as he has invested plenty of money in the area, where as Danny has a history of lying and misdemeanors. Frank believes his son though because of their own close relationship and his own suspicions, stemming from Rick's notable unease around Coleman at the ceremony. Frank does some investigating of his own and unearths Rick's criminal past which now stand to put his son and ex-wife in risk. 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 tries to kill Frank by setting his boathouse on fire, but Frank manages to escape. Susan realizes the truth when she notes a large burn on Rick's arm, having heard about the fire at the boathouse hours earlier. Susan tries to escape with Danny but Rick knocks her out and takes Danny as a hostage. Frank arrives to confront Rick,as he tries to flee. In the ensuing fight, Rick is killed when a tied-up Danny pushes him to a fuse box, electrocuting him. We see that Susan has no serious physical injury from the conflict, although we learn she miscarries her child.

Reception

The film was received poorly by critics, and was only moderately more successful at the box office. Roger Ebert awarded it a meager one-and-a-half stars (out of a possible four),^[2] reciting an ancedote about how the Chicago film critics had been shown the wrong last reel. He saw the correct one the following Monday, and scathingly said of it in his review: "The earlier reel was lacking the final music. Music is the last thing wrong with that reel."

The film was not a financial success. It was able to gross only $54m from its $75m budget.

Awards

Matt O'Leary was nominated for a Young Artist Award, for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actor. However, star John Travolta was nominated for a Razzie for Worst Actor. Vaughn and Travolta have also worked in Be Cool together.

Production notes

In April 2001, while shooting the film in Wilmington, North Carolina, actor Steve Buscemi was slashed and badly scarred on his face while intervening in a bar fight between his friend Vince Vaughn, screenwriter Scott Rosenberg and a local man, Timothy Fogerty, who allegedly instigated the brawl.^[3][4]

References

External links

• Domestic Disturbance at the Internet Movie Database