![]() Because they both came out in 1999, it often gets compared to The Sixth Sense. Stir of Echoes is still a frightening film, one with plenty of jump scares and a subtext of paranoia as it’s revealed that both the neighborhood and Tom’s friends are full of secrets. The thing I loved about Lisa is that, when she was informed that she had messed up Tom’s mind, she was both sorry and proud of herself at the same time.) (That said, my favorite character in the film was Lisa, mostly because we share the same name and she was played by the brilliant Illeana Douglas. ![]() If he has to destroy his life to get it back, that’s what he’s going to do. During those scenes, Bacon plays Tom as not only someone obsessed with discovering the truth but also as someone who just wants his life to be normal again. The fact that he played Tom as being so rational and almost boring during the first half of the movie made it all the more effective when he started tearing his house apart during the second. But, as the film progressed, I actually came to realize that Kevin Bacon was giving a brilliant performance. Kevin Bacon is one of the most likable actors on the planet and this film is usually cited as featuring one of his best performances but, in the first few scenes, he seemed to be almost going a little overboard with the whole “I’m just a working class guy” routine. When I first started rewatching Stir of Echoes for this review, I have to admit that I was a little bit concerned. Is Tom truly seeing ghosts or, as so many in the neighborhood suspect, is he losing his mind? Growing obsessed with his visions, Tom is soon tearing his own house apart in an attempt to discover what the spirits are trying to tell him. When Tom tries to pretend that nothing’s wrong, Jake tells him that it’s okay because he can see the ghost as well. He starts to have disturbing and violent visions. Soon, Tom is hearing voices and seeing what appears to be the ghost of a teenage girl in his house. Tom soon learns what it means, in his case, to be more open-minded. He even accepted Lisa’s suggestion that he “try to be more open-minded.” Upset over being revealed to be vulnerable, Tom leaves the party. He talked about being bullied as a child. Even though it was only a few seconds to Tom, he was apparently under hypnosis for quite a while. Lisa does so and, the next thing that Tom knows, he’s sitting there with tears in his eyes and everyone laughing at him. When Maggie’s sister-in-law, Lisa (Illeana Douglas), says that she knows how to hypnotize people, Tom scoffs and challenges her to hypnotize him. Of course, then Tom makes the mistake of going to a party that’s being given by his friend, Frank (Kevin Dunn). It’s not a glamorous life but at least it’s something with which Tom can be happy. ![]() So, he works hard and then he comes home and he has a beer and sometimes, he might go to a high school football game. But, now Tom’s reached his 40s, he’s got a wife named Maggie (Kathryn Erbe), a son named Jake (Zachary David Kope), and another child on the way. He wishes that his band could have taken off and he could have been a rock star. Tom wishes that he could have been something more than a phone lineman. Tom is a phone lineman who lives in Chicago. “Ghosts, they’re a real pain the ass sometimes, y’know what I’m saying?”įor instance, in Stir of Echoes, Kevin Bacon plays Tom Witzky. Sometimes, they haunt ordinary guys who live paycheck to paycheck and just want to be able to take some pride in having a home that’s free of secrets and evil spirits. Stir of Echoes was followed by Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming in 2007 which was a made-for-TV movie.As the 1999 film Stir of Echoes shows, ghost don’t only haunt the rich and famous. There are worse things than Stir of Echoes but there are also much better. Kevin Bacon is good, but he can’t make the movie a winner through and through. It has a decent story, but the story unfolds poorly with the material. The movie is a subtle story and it needs a subtle direction. It doesn’t really work and I think the movie would be better served by simply telling the story and using more suspense and subtle scares. It attempts to do a lot with jump-cuts and loud sounds. I generally like Illeana Douglas, but it doesn’t appear that she knows she’s in a drama in this movie. I also like Erbe as his wife struggling to understand what is going on. He could have easily mailed the movie in, but he feels committed to role of a man going out of his mind…and it helps the movie work. ![]() The movie benefits from Kevin Bacon who gives his all in the movie. Still easier than dealing with insurance…
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