Let's be realistic.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Theatrical Film that Plays and Looks like a Movie-of-the-Week. Maybe because 23 Minutes were Cut to get that PG-13 Rating. Another Brain-Dead, Clueless Misstep by the Suits at the Studio.Because what They got and what the Film Turned into was a Pale, somewhat Palatable Picture that Flopped Miserably at the Box-Office and with Critics.It's Not a Bad Movie and does have a Good Cast with John Travolta, Vince Vaughn, and Steve Buscemi. James Lashley gives a Good Tween Performance with a lot of Screen Time. The X-Wife and Wife is Played by Rebecca Tilney who is so Let-Down by the Script that She Barely Registers.Overall, it's Inoffensive and Slightly Suspenseful, but aside from Vaughn's Intimidation of the Youngster, nothing much Disturbing happens.Note...Director Harold Becker's other "Kid in Peril" Thriller "Mercury Rising" (1998) is a great and very underrated Movie that is a "Sleeper" out there waiting to be rediscovered.

Domestic Disturbance (2001): Dir: Harold Becker / Cast: John Travolta, Vince Vaughn, Teri Polo, Steve Buscemi, Matt O'Leary: Title refers to trauma in a small area with John Travolta starring as a boat manufacturer divorced but maintains a good relationship with his son. His son is known for mischief and the news of his mother's new engagement doesn't help matters. Formula plot regards John Travolta investigating allegations made by his son that her fiancée committed murder. Vince Vaughn plays a public figure with a nasty side whom his son claims burned a body. Formula trash right up to its dumber than dumb climax where certain people just happen to end up in particular places at the right time. Directing by Harold Becker leaves much to be desired. He previously made the terrible Mercury Rising, another film about a kid in pearl. Travolta's role does him little justice as it is just by the numbers. Vaughn always seems to be in particular places at the convenience of the screenplay. Teri Polo is suppose to be blind to common sense. Steve Buscemi is wasted as Vaughn's former associate whom will obviously end up dead. Matt O'Leary plays the kid who reason for focus is to be threatened and being fakely heroic. With nothing surprising or suspenseful, viewers are left with a real yawner. Any theme presented is replaced with disturbance in the form of bullshit. Score: 1 / 10

This has the look of a film with production problems, and I'm willing to bet a good deal of original content ended up on the cutting room floor. Travolta's character Frank Morrison's marriage to angular beauty Teri Polo has ended, and their 12-year-old son is now living with her and nice guy Rick (Vince Vaughn), who isn't actually as nice as he appears to be. At one point, as things are going particularly badly with his son, we see Frank downing shots in a bar at double-quick time. All of a sudden he's joined, without introduction, by a middle-aged lady who may or may not be the sister of Clarence from It's a Wonderful Life, but is more likely to be Frank's AA sponsor. He's a drunk, you see, and that's why his marriage ended. The trouble is, nobody involved in the film felt this was important enough to explain until this moment, about midway through the film. And after a brief, largely inconsequential conversation Clarence's sister disappears, never to be seen or referred to again.Vince Vaughn is the best thing about this entertaining if strictly ordinary little thriller. He switches effortlessly from the image of good-looking, laid-back American male perfection – or Hollywood's perception of it, anyway – to darkly menacing bad guy, looming over the hapless Jason (James Lashley) who finds himself in something of a quandary after eavesdropping on his step-dad cold-bloodedly murdering a former partner in crime who threatened to blow over the perfect house of cards he had so painstakingly constructed for himself. When Jason blows the whistle, nobody believes him – apart from his dad – and it looks as if it's only a matter of time before he and Pop meet with 'accidents' that will get them out of Rick's hair forever.Although Domestic Disturbance is entertaining enough, there are too many incidents like the one mentioned above to make it a film worth watching. For example, I can't remember any film in which a person accused of murder is allowed to sit in on the police interview with the person making that accusation – especially when it's a 12-year-old kid. Things like that are just examples of sloppy writing, of incidents in which the writer has forsaken reality in an attempt to crank up the tension. Likewise with the lighter that once belonged to Rick's murder victim, and the speed with which Rick catches on to what Frank's been up to. The film also loses focus at times as it neglects Frank or Jason's side of the story in order to concentrate on the other's side; it's an impossible story to tell from just one point of view, but they could have found a more seamless way of splitting the perspective between father and son.

Diluted thrills abound in this uninvolving re-run of THE STEPFATHER, in which a precocious youngster discovers that his new parent is, in fact, a cold-blooded killer who'll do anything to keep his crime a secret. Mainly getting by on the star presence of John Travolta alone, DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE is a well shot film that suffers from a weak script packed with Hollywood cliché. From the first twist, everything that plays out is entirely predictable, nowhere more so than the oh-so-boring climax that sees the protagonists trapped in their own home by a psychopath. From DISTURBIA to WHAT LIES BELOW, every film in the past ten years seems to end in exactly the same fashion and it's quickly become tiresome.Up until then, the film is serviceable but never surprising. The script foists upon us weak characters and it's hard to find somebody to care about – not least Matt O'Leary's brattish youngster. Vince Vaughn, so typecast in comedy these days, is never a threatening presence and you keep expecting him to crack a joke in his supposedly dramatic sequences. Teri Polo doesn't register, and only Steve Buscemi excels as a typical kook. As for Travolta, he's running through the motions, playing on the good nature he's won from audiences since PULP FICTION and never threatening to actually surprise us by acting.