A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Stir of Echos

Date Viewed: 9/19/99

Details:

Kevin Bacon

Kathryn Erbe

Illeana Douglas

Director: David Koepp

Score: +

The Review: "Sometimes within the brain's old ghostly house,
I hear, far off, at some forgotten door,
A music and an eerie faint carouse
And stir of echoes down the creaking floor."
from "Chambers of Imagery", by Archibald Macleish.

Thus, an appropriate background mood for this movie -- a ghost story based loosely on the 1958 novel by Richard Matheson, A Stir of Echoes. This poetic snippet is quoted in the preface to the novel itself.

Hypnotized by his sister (Douglas) at a party, Bacon becomes transformed -- "his switch is thrown," in the words of one of the characters -- and he is granted entry into a world already peripherally glimpsed by his son, whom we see in the opening scenes talking ambiguously either to the audience or to an invisible presence. This latter role is reminiscent of the young star in The Sixth Sense -- perhaps coincidental, perhaps not. Bacon becomes compelled to uncover the nature of his haunting, and is as crazed and obsessed as Richard Dreyfuss's character in Close Encounters, such that he threatens both his marriage and several community friendships. His attractive wife (Erbe) is puzzled, frustrated and eventually estranged by this massive personality change.

"Based on" is the critical attributive phrase; the plot elements in the book are substantially different from the movie. Even though the scene is not in the novel, in the meeting of a Chicago policeman with Bacon's son there's a clear allusion to some of the characters and a theme from The Shining (perhaps appropriate, since Stephen King credits Richard Matheson as being a pivotal authorial influence). And one of the elements common to both plots, unexplained in the novel, is actually justified much better in the movie. But if you've never read the book, this matters not...

Bacon is initially annoying, and becomes quite disturbing as his obsession develops; altogether decent acting. Douglas adds a slightly humorous tinge to an otherwise dark story.

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