"Cold Creek Manor"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| **1/2 (out of 5 stars) STARRING Dennis Quaid as COOPER TILSON Sharon Stone as LEAH TILSON Stephen Dorff as DALE MASSIE Juliette Lewis as RUBY Kristen Stewart as KRISTEN TILSON Ryan Wilson as JESSE TILSON Rated R Studio: Touchstone Directed by: Mike Figgis Back to DVD Review Home |
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I’m going to start off by saying that I didn’t like the movie “Cold Creek Manor.” I really, really didn’t like the movie. However, I can forgive a lot for a bad movie that comes out with at least a decent DVD, and the home video release of “Cold Creek Manor” has helped redeem the film a bit.
For the record, here’s the story again. Cooper and Leah Tilson (Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone) uproot the family and move out into the country after their son is almost killed in a car accident. They settle on a small town in upstate New York and buy a foreclosed house and estate called Cold Creek Manor.
The film’s tag line says, “Have you ever wondered what happened in your house before you lived there?” And this leads us to believe there’s a terrifying secret there. This big secret turns out to be Dale Massie (Brad Dorff), the former owner of the property, who just happened to get out of prison.
Of course, Dale has a secret - the mysterious disappearance of his wife and kids before he went to prison. There’s also a stack of pornographic pictures Dale had apparently taken of his wife that Cooper stumbles across. And, Cooper visits Dale’s dying father in the hospital, who hints at the fact that foul play may have been involved in the death of the family.
“Cold Creek Manor” is the example of a filmmaker who is trying to make a movie in a genre he doesn’t understand. Director Mike Figgis has spent too much time brooding about concepts like infidelity and betrayal that he cannot throw off those story concepts for the sake of a story.
On the technical side of filmmaking, “Cold Creek Manor” excels. The set design and cinematography are excellent. It’s clear that these folks working on these elements understood the thriller genre. However, the story just isn’t there to make it convincing. Instead of achieving realism, Figgis falls back on cheap tricks like silly macho bar encounters between Dale and Cooper and threats of infidelity from Leah.
Stephen Dorff blows hot and cold in his portrayal of Dale Massie. At times, he can be both smooth and scary. Other times - especially in the movie’s climax - he seems to be channeling Cecil B. Demented from his days with John Waters. Both Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone are showing their age, and it looks like life has taken more of its toll on Stone.
Although the movie itself isn’t all that great, the “Cold Creek Manor” DVD has a decent supply of special features. There are two separate featurettes, the first of which is a behind-the-scenes look at how they treated the Cooper’s documentary within the film. On one hand, this shows an incredible attention to detail as Figgis wanted to make sure Cooper’s footage was shot like a real documentary. However, it is also an exercise in unnecessary attention to detail as only a tiny fraction of the viewers appreciated it. Still, it’s well put together and gives some nice insight into how Figgis approached the film.
The second featurette, “Rules of the Genre” is really a bit of a joke. In this featurette, the cast and crew discusses how they had to follow the rules of a thriller genre. In general, they get the rules right. Too bad they didn’t apply these to the making of the movie. The big problem is that “Cold Creek Manor” isn’t as much of a thriller as it is a weak soap opera masquerading as a thriller. While Figgis can parrot the rules of the genre, he really didn’t know how to apply them.
There’s an alternative ending to the film, which really doesn’t change things, except it expands on the fate of Sheriff Ferguson (Dana Eskelson). Figgis, with his unmistakable Peter Jackson hairstyle, makes an appearance in this alternative ending tag as a documentary filmmaker. Sure, a bit of an ego trip, but at least he had the good taste to take himself out of the final cut.
Along with the alternative ending, there are several deleted scenes. What saves this is the wide selection. Like most deleted scenes, it’s clear why they were left on the cutting room floor. After all, this movie would have been unbearable if it was any longer, and these scenes would have added a good 20 minutes to the film. However, it gives a decent insight, if for no other reason than it allows the viewer to see other scenes where Figgis tried to manufacture suspense and eeriness with less than stellar results.
The deleted scenes come with selected director commentaries, which are nice to have in order to understand why the scenes were removed in the first place. Also, the deleted scenes menu has an interesting Easter egg that shows the contents of Dale’s boy’s sketch book. It’s not great, but it’s always fun to find Easter eggs.
Finally, Mike Figgis delivers a decent feature commentary. He’s not the most engaging speaker, and his voice does tend to grate on your nerves if you listen to the whole thing in one sitting. However, for an additional at-home film-school look at the movie, this is definitely worthwhile.
Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Widescreen (1.85:1), enhanced for 16x9 televisions. French language track. Spanish subtitles. English language subtitles for the hearing impaired.
