What Lies Beneath is the latest vehicle starring one of Hollywood's most bank-able stars, Harrison Ford. Directed brilliantly by Robert Zemeckis, the movie is one of the more scary and suspense-filled films out this year, featuring a character by Ford that clearly deviates from anything he's done in the past.
The film's plot is fairly simple: Norman (Ford) and Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer) Spencer are happily married living on a huge lakeside house in Vermont. But their marriage starts to unravel as Claire begins to experience strange things happening to her, and starts believing that the house they live in is haunted. Slowly Claire pierces together a set of facts that shed light on a former student of Norman's who is reported missing. Norman gravitates between supporting his wife and then becoming angry at her erratic behaviour, but in the end, we learn that he knows a lot more than he lets on.
The acting is excellent. Even though the ending is obvious, and one can easily predict when the next thing that'll make you jump happen, that still doesn't stop the movie from being an edge-of-the-seat thriller. There are times when the movie drags, and the number of twists at the end are one too many. What Lies Beneath is a decent summer time killer, worth the matinee fare.