DVD Reveiw: "HIDE AND SEEK" Score C+

The combination of Robert DiNero and Dakota Fanning seemed like a great match up. Where this one starts out very creepy, from the first shot on, the tone and feel of the film making is definitely un-nerving which any thriller should be. There are so many possible options and so many questions that are created through the first two thirds of the movie. Dakota is excellently disturbing and leaves it up to the audience to figure out what is really going on. A few genuine jumps are to be found in the film. However the writing takes a turn for the worse by the beginning of Act three. SPOILER ALERT: What was a creepy well crafted thriller declines into a base seen-it before cookie cutter answer to the riddles presented. The easy twist out is DiNero is crazy and has a split personality, and this quickly explains away all of the creepy happenings the film supplied up until this moment. Now the film still isn't over after this reveal, now it turns into a child endangerment film with crazy hunting after his daughter. This film could have been so much more and its simply the fault of the writing. The daughter could have been crazy and created a alter killer ego, the cave could have harbored an actual killer, the house could have had some ghost, the dead child of the neighbor's could have been Charlie, the neighbor man could have been Charlie, the dead mother's ghost could have been tormenting them. Instead he is crazy and wakes up to realize he did all the killings and bad stuff...lame. Could have been so much more to this, which would have made it a better film.