“Cold Creek Manor” (Touchstone Pictures)
Some people will venture into “Cold Creek Manor” expecting it to be a ghost story. It is not. It is one of those psychological dramas that pits a regular family against a whacko. In this film the regular guys are played by Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone and the whacko is played by Stephen Dorff.
Cooper and Leah Tilson (Quaid and Stone) are living the frenetic life in New York City. They tire of it and decide to move with their two children into a stately home in upper New York. They get it at a bargain price because the owner is in prison, and prices are cheaper in small towns. Still this is a big house and you never understand how an average couple could afford it.
Once settled in, the Tilsons feel rejected by the community. People such as Ruby (Juliette Lewis), the local waitress, aren’t friendly. They treat the Tilsons like intruders. This gets worse when Dale Massie (Stephen Dorff) shows up at their house. He is the previous owner and would like his house back, please. When the Tilsons don’t voluntarily leave, he begins a campaign to get them out.
None of this is particularly intriguing or interesting. It also isn’t very scary, which viewers are expecting it to be. There are jolting scenes with some snakes but that is the height of the suspense.
Quaid plays his role very low key. He makes Cooper a milquetoast sort of person. This goes against his aggressiveness at the end of the film. Stone is just awful in her part. She doesn’t look good and her acting is wooden throughout the film. “Leah” was not a good choice as her comeback role.
Dorff is all hostility and edginess as Dale. He gives the film whatever tension it has. Lewis is the town tramp one more time. She has played this role in a million other movies so we understand her character as soon as Lewis appears on screen.
The movie is rated R for violence and profanity.
With Quaid in the lead role the movie has some entertainment value, but Stone is a weight around his acting neck. Dorff does add some suspense but the movie just muddles along until it finally ends.
I scored “Cold Creek Manor” a chilly 4 out of 10.
