By Susan Sackett
Hush (starring Jessica Lange, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jonathan Schaech; directed by Jonathan Darby; rated PG-13).
Jessica Lange seems to have found her niche playing a wacko mother-in-law in Hush. As a crazed Virginia landowner, she manipulates her son’s girlfriend into marriage, pregnancy, relocation and just about anything else she sets her sights on. She may be loony tunes, but she’s good at what she does – and she knows where the bodies are buried – literally. She terrorizes her daughter-in-law (Paltrow) subtly and overtly (especially in the childbirth scene), all unbeknownst to her son. The audience is onto her from the start, so there is very little sustained suspense. The only question is whether or not Paltrow will survive. When she does, we expect her to go after mommy-in-law dearest with a vengeance. Lange does get her come-uppance in the end, but it lacks efficacy, making for a film with 90 minutes of tantalizing foreplay and no climax.
TWO AND A HALF OWLS (out of five)