Don't Say A Word (2001)

Don't Say a Word is a 2001 psychological thriller film starring Michael Douglas, Sean Bean and Brittany Murphy based on the novel of the same title by Andrew Klavan. Don't Say a Word was directed by Gary Fleder and written by Anthony Peckham and Patrick Smith Kelly.

Tagline: ...I'll never tell.

Plot

In 1991, a group of thieves steal a rare $10 million gem, but in the process, two of the lads double cross their leader Patrick (Sean Bean), and take off with the precious stone. Ten years later on the day before Thanksgiving, prominent private practice Manhattan child psychiatrist Dr. Nathan R. Conrad (Michael Douglas) is invited by his friend and former colleague Dr. Louis Sachs (Oliver Platt), to examine a disturbed young lady named Elisabeth (Brittany Murphy) at the state sanatorium. Having been released on November 4, Patrick's gang breaks into an apartment which overviews Conrad's family apartment, including his wife Aggie (Famke Janssen) who has a broken leg from a skiing accident, and bright kid Jessie (Skye McCole Bartusiak) who has learned some of her father's psychological tricks. That evening, Patrick kidnaps Nathan's daughter - while Detective Sandra Cassidy (Jennifer Esposito) is called to investigate the unexplained murders of the driver and his sister of Patrick's gang four days earlier. The next morning Patrick forces Nathan to attempt during the holiday to get Elisabeth to reveal a secret six-digit number which will ultimately lead Patrick to the whereabouts of the precious gem that has eluded him so he and his gang can enjoy the life of luxury they all hoped for.

Cast

Michael Douglas as Dr. Nathan R. Conrad
Sean Bean as Patrick Koster
Brittany Murphy as Elisabeth Burrows
Skye McCole Bartusiak as Jessie Conrad
Guy Torry as Dolen
Jennifer Esposito as Det. Sandra Cassidy
Famke Janssen as Agatha "Aggie" Conrad
Oliver Platt as Dr. Louis Sachs

Production

Much of the filming was, for costs reasons, undertaken in Canada. The Canal Street subway station was actually filmed in a set constructed in Toronto's "Bay Lower" unused subway station, with columns, beams, mosaics and dressing covering all the existing surfaces. The Toronto Transit Commission was so impressed with the work of American production designer Nelson Coates' conversion to the New York subway that they actually requested the set to be left up after filming was completed to attract future filming revenue, but fire inspectors deemed its long term installation hazardous and it was taken down three weeks later. The final scenes of the film which are set in Potter's Field on Hart Island, which is located east of Manhattan, in the Long Island Sound, and were actually filmed indoors in an enormous warehouse, with more than 4,000 tons of earth, 38 mature trees, 180,000 leaves, three buildings and 126 graves, as well as a collapsing 50'x10'x8' grave trench. An air conditioning system and misting machines were installed to create visible breath.

Surveillance and technology features heavily in the film, so much that in characterization the shots of Bean speaking to Douglas and Janssen on the cell phone is real. Janssen's character has to play with a Game Boy at one point in the film, a skill taught to her by Skye McCole Bartusiak.

Soundtrack

The film's musical score was composed by Mark Isham. The soundtrack contains eight songs from various scene including; the Heist, the Kidnapping and the horrific events at the Subway.[1]

Some of the music in the film includes the following songs and performers:

1.Funky Cold Medina by Tone Loc
2.5 By Steve by Steve Weisberg
3.Fee Fie Foo by Louis Prima
4.Promises by India.Arie
5.Pride & Joy by Marvin Gaye
6.Dream a Little, Dream of Me by Ella Fitzgerald
7.Pink Toenails by Martie Maguire and Laura Lynch, sung by Skye McCole Bartusiak

References

1.^ Original Score at Amazon.co.uk

-- wiki