Cast: Marlee Matlin, D. B. Sweeney, Martin Sheen, John C. McGinley
Director: Robert Greenwald
Producer: David Matalon
Screenplay: R. M. Badat and Kathleen Rowell
Cinematography: Steven Shaw
Music: Graeme Revell
U.S. Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox
Marlee Matlin is Jillian, a deaf exercise instructor. One of her clients (John C. McGinley) comes into possession of some information that leads him to a stolen ancient coin valued at $1 million. When a crooked police officer (Martin Sheen), who wants the coin for his "retirement fund", gets close, McGinley's character hides it among Jillian's possessions, right before a car he borrows from one of his friends (D. B. Sweeney) blows up. Soon after, Jillian is assaulted and nearly killed. Only the timely arrival of Sweeney saves her. Over the next few days, they get to know each other, overcoming the hearing barrier while working to find the coin and stay alive.
During the writing process, all of the thought apparently went into making Hear No Evil's two main characters real people. Marlee Matlin's Jillian is especially effective -- a mixture of sensitivity, humor, and strength. She's not the typical screaming female-in-danger who has to wait for the nearest man to save her (although that does happen once).
In dealing with the issue of deafness, Hear No Evil is no Children of a Lesser God, but at least it doesn't condecend. There are several "scenes of silence" which purport to give Jillian's perspective on events by turning off the audio. Although these don't really work, there are a few instances when the movie creates a sense of almost-claustrophobic isolation. Like last year's Jennifer 8, which featured a blind woman being stalked, Hear No Evil offers the audience a taste of what a victim experiences when she's cut off in some way from the rest of the world.
Where Hear No Evil fails is in its story. The plot is riddled with holes, and in the script's feeble attempts to plug some of the more obvious ones, it widens them. It's astonishing how little of this movie makes sense. There are far too many contrivances and coincidences for credibility on any level. Instead of going for a slick ending with an abysmal twist, the writers should have given the audience credit for some intelligence.
At least Hear No Evil doesn't give us yet another clone of Fatal Attraction and/or The Hand that Rocks the Cradle. Lately, every thriller seems to fit into this category. However, even though Hear No Evil goes in another direction, it doesn't blaze any new trails. There is potential here, and good acting and a few decent characters to go with it, but the story is nonsensical, and that pretty much makes Hear No Evil a waste of time.
© 1993 James Berardinelli