Harrison seeks new depth in "What Lies Beneath''
2000
Reuters
It's not easy being an aging Hollywood action
hero unless, maybe, that hero is Harrison Ford whose newest movie, ``What Lies
Beneath,'' opens across the country Friday. After all, Ford, who turned 58 last
week, will always be a huge celebrity for his Han Solo role in the original
``Star Wars'' movies, and his ``Raiders of the Lost Ark'' hero, Indiana Jones,
is a household name.
His films have made billions of dollars for filmmakers. He gets paid north of $20 million a picture and only does one a year because that is all he wants. He flies his own plane and owns a ranch in Wyoming. Life, for Ford, doesn't seem tough. Still, in Hollywood, he's no comic book star like the ''X-men,'' drawing millions of teens into theaters and bringing in over $50 million in three days at U.S. box offices. His movies don't feature the kind of youth-oriented ``gross-out'' humor that made ``Scary Movie'' a ticket-selling sensation.
So, as the supernatural thriller ``What Lies Beneath,'' in which he co-stars with Michelle Pfeiffer, debuts this weekend, many Hollywood watchers want to see what he's doing to hang onto his once-powerful box office punch. ``I think the best I can do at this point is admit who I am and what my age is and look for ways to be useful,'' Ford told Reuters in a recent interview. ``That's my highest ambition, to be useful.''
Ford's Dr. Norman Spencer in ``What Lies Beneath'' is a genius scientist with only average street smarts -- who gets caught up in a seemingly small mystery only to watch it erupt into murder and mushroom out of his control. Director Robert Zemeckis (''Forrest Gump'') and producing partner Jack Rapke saw the film as the type of suspenseful thriller Alfred Hitchcock might make for today's audiences.
But Ford, who says he is not a big Hitchcock fan, believes ''What Lies Beneath'' out-Hitchcocks Hitchcock because Zemeckis has given audiences characters with whom they can empathize. For him, the old Hitchcock films feel unreal, whereas ``What Lies Beneath'' allows people to become ``part of the mystery.''
Murder Leads To Mystery
In the movie, Spencer's wife Claire (Pfeiffer) sees her married neighbors arguing on several occasions, and when the husband sneaks a body-sized bundle into the trunk of his car on a rainy night, she thinks he's murdered his wife. The husband is a teacher at the same New England college where Spencer is a researcher, and after doing some checking, Norman assures Claire that the husband wouldn't hurt a flea.
But Claire won't stop believing what she saw, and when a ghost-like specter appears in her bathroom warning her that she knows something's wrong, Claire looks deeper into the mystery. What Claire learns is that a college student was murdered about a year ago, and she's still listed as a missing person. Not coincidentally, Claire had been in a car crash about a year ago, and she can't quite recall the details surrounding it. The ghost, she believes, is real, and her hunt for a killer takes her and Norman, literally, deep into their own lives when the ghost's spirit possesses Claire. It's up to Norman to uncloak the killer and restore order to their lives.
Because of its supernatural element, ``What Lies Beneath,'' begs the obvious comparison to last year's box office smash ''The Sixth Sense'' Whereas ``Sense'' offered a relatively slow pace, ``What Lies Beneath'' takes audiences on a faster ride with quick camera cuts and sharp picture angles. For the last 20 minutes, it's a flat-out chase that may leave ``Star Wars'' or Indiana Jones fans shouting for more.
``Hey,'' joked Ford, ``Indiana Jones can be 58, as well.''
He really can't, however -- the fans that made Indiana Jones a hero were teenagers in the 1980s, and the kids of summer 2000 appear to want ``X-Men'' and gross humor.
So now Ford is banking on roles like Norman Spencer with less action and more intrigue. And because moviegoers have never seen him play a sort of everyday geek like Spencer, he may win some new fans in his ripe old age. What's he doing to change his career and stay relevant at 58? ``I just did it,'' he said. ``I just did it.'
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