Film Review: The Whisper Man on Netflix

Robert De Niro is amazing in The Whisper Man. The script does not give him much to work with, so apparently he decided to write the rest of it with his face. A tightening around the mouth. A pause before answering. A look that lasts half a second longer than it should. He shows us a man with enormous regrets about his family and what his work with a serial killer did to undo it. He also shows us his intelligence. You can practically watch his mind moving around the room, picking up clues the script has not bothered to make interesting yet.

The story? OK.

It is a little confusing, but that is not really the problem. Confusing can be fun. This is confusing without being creative about it. Things are revealed, but they do not unfold. There is a difference.

What is maddening is that there is a truly great idea buried inside this film. This is the story of three fathers and three sons. Pete and Tom. Tom and Jake. Frank and Frank Jr.

Think about what could have been done with that.

One father destroys his son. One father loves his son but cannot reach him. One son spends a lifetime believing his own father abandoned him, only to discover that the truth was something else entirely. There is a sick father and son, a misunderstood father and son and a grieving father and son. All three are circling the same question. What does a father pass on to his son, even when he is not there?

That could have been the movie.

It also could have shown us the boundaries surrounding all of them. The boundary between protection and obsession. Between love and possession. Between being absent and being shut out. Between what a child remembers and what actually happened.

Instead, the film gives us pieces of all that and then runs off to chase another clue.

The direction by James Ashcroft is not great. I have to say it. There is nothing particularly inventive about the way the story is told, and too much time is spent watching cars drive up to houses. I do not need to see another car driving up to another house, particularly when half the houses make no sense. Where are these people? Who lives like this? Why does everyone in a serial killer movie appear to own an enormous, isolated house with seventeen rooms and no working lightbulbs?

Atmosphere is important. But turning off every lamp is not directing.

Then Hamish Linklater appears as Norman Collins, the very elegant, very creepy collector of serial killer memorabilia, and suddenly the film wakes up. He is outstanding. Big time. He understands exactly what kind of movie he is in and gives it the danger, intelligence and weirdness it has been missing. You cannot take your eyes off him, although you would certainly cross the street if you saw him coming.

Michelle Monaghan is also excellent as Detective Amanda Beck. I always like watching her. She has that rare ability to look as though she is thinking rather than waiting for the other actor to finish speaking.

No, she is no Clarice Starling. But there is a scene between Amanda and Frank Jr., played by Owen Teague, that comes directly out of The Silence of the Lambs. He kills the lights, leaving her in the darkness trying to find him before he gets away. Trust me. You will know it when you see it.

It is done very well. In fact, it is the highlight of the film and the best piece of directing in it.

And then there is the ending.

Tom looks at a photograph of a little girl in a blue sweater. If you have been paying very close attention, you may understand who she is and what the picture means. If you have not, you will probably sit there wondering why Adam Scott is staring at a photograph of a child you do not remember meeting.

Apparently, James Ashcroft has had to explain the photograph in numerous interviews. That is not an intriguing ending. That is an ending that did not land.

There is a difference between leaving an audience with a mystery and leaving them in need of customer support.

No, The Whisper Man is not a great film. It could have been. That is what makes it frustrating. The performances are there. The ideas are there. The three fathers and three sons are there. De Niro is quietly showing us the emotional center of the entire story every time the camera finds his face.

The movie simply does not seem to understand what it has, but it's worth watching for what you can read between the lines.