Sadly Over-hyped

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

In the beginning of Hush, I was ready to be thrilled because I was told that this movie was going to be a horror film. But, then, that was just only the beginning of a misunderstanding. The reason why? Well, the opening credits of Hush does set up a very creepy and haunting introduction. But, the movie fails, I'm afraid. In the movie, Jackson (Jonathon Schaech) is living with his girlfriend, Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) in New York City. Jackson's mother, Martha (Jessica Lange), is living in Kentucky, alone with herself. The young couple are seen in the beginning of the movie, visiting Martha on his farmhouse. The name of Martha's farmhouse is Kilronan and this particular farmhouse is where Jackson grew up. After returning from Kentucky, Helen reveals to her husband that she is pregnant. Soon enough, the young couple are married at Kilronan. Another character that is introduced is Alice (Nina Foch). She tells Helen that she can't trust Jackson's mother. We don't why she can't trust her. Meanwhile, Helen is attacked by a home invader who steals her locket. Before the home invader leaves, he cuts her with his knife and Helen is rushed to the hospital. Martha tells her son that she is selling the ranch because she can't run it alone. The movie then falls even deeper into the main characters' secrets. One of them involves Jackson's father death. As a child, Jackson witness his father fall down a flight of stairs and injured himself severely. But, there's more to that. Alice tells Helen that Jackson's father died because he tripped on a nail puller and fell down the stairs. I had a lot of negative criticisms for Hush, and there are lot of things that this movie fails to do right. One of my criticisms is that the story isn't bolted down to the movie itself. It seems that this story wanders around the screen without having the intelligence or the thought to stay put. There are some unnecessary scenes that are in this movie, such as the scene where Paltrow is attacked inside her New York apartment. Yet, even as the movie goes on, she never mentioned anything about the home invader cutting her stomach although, it's never explained. Another problem that I had in the movie is a particular scene where Jessica Lange holds Paltrow captive inside her home while she is going into labor. I really felt that the screenwriters and the director really push Lange's actions to the extreme during that whole scene, which I think, is being played for cruelty. In fact, Lange's character is unworthy. I didn't buy her character mainly because of two reasons: 1. Her country accent, which really slows the movie down at times. 2. Her plans to destroy her son's relationship with his girlfriend are predictable. I felt that I've seen this movie, and I bet I have. As of a matter of fact, this plot was also presentable in films like Consenting Adults and Single White Female. In those two films, the idea of someone ruining someone's else relationship. Here, it doesn't work. Hush is a predictable movie and is not really at all thrilling or terrifying. Jessica Lange doesn't do a good job in her role as the deranged mother. Jonathon Schaech is not convincing as Paltrow's husband. He doesn't seem to realize what he's getting himself into and even in the end of the movie, he is sort of playing dumb on us. Gwyneth Paltrow is all right in the beginning of the movie, but in the end, she basically rushes the film right up to the end credits. As for Nina Foch, I wish there were more scenes of her. She is the only character I would follow. But, she couldn't save this movie. What we got here is three completely different characters stuck inside a confusing and somewhat slow and lame story. Hush is basically a lame psychological thriller. It couldn't have been better. ★★ 2 stars.

"Hush" is the kind of film that's so easy that it should work right on the first view but it's not the case. I remember watching it a few years ago and finding one of the most boring things I've ever seen except for the outstanding acting of Jessica Lange. Fate pulls its strings sometimes and one of those nights when you're desperate for something to show up on TV and there you go, there was this and I got a little gripped into seeing it again, this time paying more attention to details. Well, it turned out to be quite a good film, undeserving the low rating that is getting now.A twisted and thrilling tale about acceptance and skeletons in the closet? You can say that. Gwyneth Paltrow plays the lovable Helen, a successful and beautiful woman, loved by a man who's also both of the fore-mentioned qualities, the great Jackson (Johnathon Schaech) of the powerful Baring family. But he has a mother, the surprising Martha (Jessica Lange) of whom Helen always tries to please to the best since Jackson and his mom has some strong bonds between them and she wants to be part of this quite perfect family. Habitual to flicks of the same caliber, there's secrets, tension between both women and a certain disdain the old lady feels for the younger and it's up to Helen to discover what's the problem with the Baring family. Her only great ally is Jackson's grandmother (Nina Foch, excellent), father of Martha's late husband, and keeper of some family secrets that can storm a big mess in everyone's lives.There isn't much to be said about "Hush" except that the cast is great, even though they're not at their greatest moment. Except Lange and Foch who are brilliant, and the memorable special appearance of Hal Holbrook as the doctor. But it's Lange who steals the show playing a pitiful villain, sometimes adorable, other times really cruel but most of the time always in control of the situation. The plot should include more characters to make this more tense and less concentrated in those three main characters. The relationship between Jackson and Martha could've go to more controversial ways, cause everything seems to indicate that (the scene where he's covered in mud and she cleans him, they're like pretending it's just a silly joke. There's something going on there).I know Jonathan Darby has directed better films (like the criminally underrated and almost forgotten "The Enemy Within" with Forest Whitaker) but what he makes here is quite good, never cheap and at the most entertaining to watch for its cast and the beautiful cinematography. 8/10

In theory, "Hush" sounds like an ideal movie, but I'm afraid the results leave a lot to be desired. How in the world did these actors, especially Gwyneth Paltrow, get duped into participating in this project? Everyone is phoning in their performances here. This is a movie you might as well be listening to on the radio. The "story", not that there is much of one, is this: A New York couple, Jackson and Helen, are visiting his mother, Martha, for the holidays. She smokes, drinks, and tries to tear this couple apart (from what I can recall, anyway). The closest any of these characters get to being menacing, is when Helen (Jessica Lange's character) changes the temperature in the hot tub her mother is bathing in at the spa (or wherever the tub is). I didn't buy the story, I wasn't engaged, and I didn't care about the characters (or what would eventually happen to them). The things that happen, happen simply because the screenplay requires it to.** out of ****

This movie starring Jessica Lange and Gwyneth Paltrow has great talent, but the production company obviously spent all its money on the stars' salaries. A film about Kentucky Thoroughbred racing should be filmed in Kentucky, not at a show horse farm in Virginia. The Kentucky Blue Grass region is uniquely identifiable, as is Virginia horse country -- and the two are not interchangeable, even in fiction. It is like making a film about New York City in Los Angeles. Did they think no one would notice? And there are plenty of Thoroughbreds in Virginia, so why did the filmmaker try to pass off big, fat show horses as racehorses? The scene at the horse sale and all its errors are even too ridiculous to mention.The technical adviser on this film was either asleep or inept, because a scene does not pass without a glowing inaccuracy. Especially noticeable to anyone interested in horses who watches this movie (and I can't imagine anyone else would) are the dangerous ways in which the horses are handled, usually by people who are recognizable as amateurs at handling a horse. The most glaring fax pas surrounds the drug oxytocin that Jessica Lange's character removes from the cabinet: the label clearly states "erythromycin tablets." Again, did the filmmaker think no one would notice? Literary license is one thing, but this movie goes way, way beyond that and into the depths of the toilet.