When the Bough Breaks
When the Bough Breaks
R | 07 May 1994 (USA)
When the Bough Breaks Trailers

A police detective investigates the apparent serial killing of several children which is linked to an institutionalized, autistic child.

Reviews
Kattiera Nana

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

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Jeanskynebu

the audience applauded

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ThedevilChoose

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

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Tobias Burrows

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

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midge56

The story was excellent. In fact, it was downright scary. The plot and storyline are unlike any other movie I've seen. Quite unique. In fact, if this movie was based on a published book, I'd like to know the name of it. Perhaps the missing parts of the movie, might be in that book. The story came from somewhere, so we need to find more about the source.There are indeed story lines in this movie which appear, then disappear without a word such as the scars on the investigators back. Evidently, she was a victim of unimaginable abuse based on the scars and perhaps her claustrophobia, but this storyline simply disappeared without explanation. She says a little bit about it when speaking to Jordan in one scene.The storyline behind the killer, his public life, his secret life and past events concerning his children was just barely enough to connect the movie, but should have had a lot more depth to it and should have included scenes regarding the births and the meltdown of the surgeon for appropriate flashbacks.The chain smoking of the main character, the lead investigator, was to the point of being disturbing, distasteful and obnoxious. It distracted from the movie and actually interfered with her role. It had no place in the movie and did nothing but get in the way.Serious flaws were also made concerning the character of a boy (these reviewers need to get over the obvious fact that the actor was a female which was done to create the effect of twins with telepathic links). The boy is NOT autistic. He is an "Elective" mute... that means he "Chose" not to speak. But they show him writing to communicate... yet he had been locked up in a psychiatric cell since he was 4 and was never schooled... thus, there is no way he would know how to read or write under those conditions. For the psychiatric hospital to have buried him in a basement room, unable to see out and the only inhabitant of an entire section of the hospital was simply over the edge. No institution would waste money to maintain heating, cooling, lighting, cleaning and supervision of an entire wing for one person. The conditions were simply ridiculous.Basically, this movie looks like it had no director or direction. It just looks like someone showed up everyday to collect money for that role but never bothered to do any work... so the cast and crew were left on their own to film the movie. It would have been a directors job to ensure the movie did not have these dead ends and errors and to ensure continuity throughout. Did anyone bother to preview the movie after it was edited? It doesn't look like it. Too many missing explanations and errors. I looked up the director, Michael Cohn and I was right. He is a terrible "non" director. He only directed about 2 other movies and was the writer/director for this one. This could have been a superb movie with a decent director. It is obvious that this one had serious problems and so the cast and crew did the best they could without direction.Even with the flaws, it is a terrific movie. Unique story and an "edge of the seat" thriller. Highly recommended. Be sure not to mistake this movie for the other one of the same name with Ted Danson. If it says Danson... you have the wrong movie. Many times, even the cable channel directory mixes up the two when they write the description on the schedule.

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Pedro

I ran into this movie in one of my on demand channels. I put it on because I had seen everything else I had available. Excellent movie, kept me glued to the TV the whole damn time. I Did not even bother to pause it to check the credits because Jordan looked a lot like either Isabella Rosellini or Jared Letto, and that kept nagging me through the movie.How come I am expected to fill-in 10 lines worth of comments? This is kind of silly. Oh well, I honestly had not heard before of this movie, Sheen was more or less a generic authority figure, other 10 actors could have done at least the same job and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Ally Walker played her part more as a real rookie than her actual character, who was supposed to have 3 years in the field. Sometimes in the movie you wonder if she has been in that job for a whole month.The rest of the cast was pretty forgettable, but still, it was a great movie.

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his2ljb

diss-a-point-ment. having got myself in the mood for a thriller i was looking forward to a bit of martin sheen and ron perlman following the typical meanders a thriller takes before WHACK! a twist, a conclusion, happy ending........ didn't see much of any of them! martin sheen's talent is wasted on the few scenes as the police chief (a role you could even train a monkey like orlando bloom to play) and if you blink you'll miss perlmans appearance as the killer. the plot line seems so promising but what could have been a darker, spookier and scarier movie ended all to soon. there are moments you prepare to jump out your seat in fright but.....still waiting...oh nothing happened.the whole feeling of the film is like this is the kind of thing clareece starling (silence of the lambs FBI lady!) solves in her spare time before the big cases come along. in fact, thats a good way of describing this movie, a normal day in the life of an FBI agent, nothing spectacular, nothing new, boring as 9 to 5. see it by all means but as i gave silence of the lambs an 8 id be lying if i gave this anything over 4 and i don't think it deserves that.3/10

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labolabo

I think this movie had several good points, but also several flaws. The story is a bit too unrealistic, and I think Ally Walker overacted. Normal people in real life simply don't behave the way she does in the movie.I think it seems to be an interesting manuscript (although with flaws), but I found the work of the director and the actors and actresses rather poor. Not very realistic at all.

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