Director: Jim Sheridan
Starring: Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts
**
This psychological thriller would probably be a footnote in the careers of its main stars were it not for the fact that it was on this movie set that the current James Bond Craig had a whirlwind romance with fellow British star Weisz.
They got to play husband and wife before they made the step in real life in this tale of marital tension, housing crisis and split personalities. Craig plays a writer, Will Atenton, who is struggling with a new novel, and moves his wife and two children to the suburbs to live in a house too good to be true.
Anyone who has seen the 1986 Tom Hanks comedy The Money Pit will know that when something seems too good to be true, it normally is. It turns out that a series of nasty murders took place in the mansion before the family moved in and while the familiar haunted-house routine feels staid, it's a darn sight better than the second half when the plot revolves around whether Will knows more about the history of the house and the serial killer than he is letting on.
Alarm bells ring when neighbours Ann (Watts) and her husband act like they've known Will for a long time. Yet, in trying to make good on the preposterous twist, the director Sheridan (best known for My Left Foot) loses the plot himself, and the big question is how so much talent is wasted.
