Metascore
29 out of 100

Generally unfavorable - based on 27 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 27
  2. Negative: 18 out of 27
  1. Every signifier in this quintessentially American domestic thriller is in satisfying running order.
  2. A thriller that presses all the buttons: parental love, childhood terror, fear of Vince Vaughn.
  3. 63
    A refreshingly unpretentious little thriller.
  4. Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    63
    Doesn't make nearly the ripple it could have made.
  5. Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    60
    Although decked out with a legitimate star and handsome production carpentry, pic takes no greater interest in creating three-dimensional characters or fleshing out a credible storyline than does the run-of-the-mill straight-to-video thriller.
  6. The movie has a suspenseful moment or two, and it's never hard to watch, but it's ultimately one more totally forgettable Hollywood thriller.
  7. Travolta, a bit portly (or is it starboardly?), phones in his performance from his place in Maine; Vaughn is ice-cool but not especially convincing; the kid is OK, and Polo is a blank.
  8. Does a masterful job of building menace until about halfway through.
  9. It's predictable stuff, though with a nice old-fashioned edge.
  10. 38
    The movie is a paid holiday for its director, Harold Becker. I say this because I know what Becker is capable of.
  11. There's almost no reason to see the movie, unless you have no qualms about wasting your time.
  12. Why Travolta is slumming in B movies is anybody's guess. (I'll take a wild flier: "Battlefield Earth"?)
  13. Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    38
    Anyone who sees this movie is going to be 20 minutes ahead of it, though there won't be that many after Weekend 1. With domestic disturbances, someone calls the cops. With this DOA, someone had better call the coroner.
  14. Sttrictly movie-of-the-week stuff. And not very good stuff, at that.
  15. 30
    The film's subtexts are profoundly reactionary. Women are foolish and untrustworthy.
  16. 25
    The movie is pure product, and proud of it: There isn't a single surprising moment in all of its 88 minutes, because Domestic Disturbance is designed to stick to tried-and-true formulas, instead of shaking them up a little.
  17. 25
    Few movies feel quite so perfunctory or needless or pointless as this one.
  18. It's likely there's going to be some “viewer disturbance” going on after audiences catch a whiff of this routine and thrill-less suspenser.
  19. 20
    It's clear from the outset that a thriller is going to be big and dumb -- as opposed to tight and smart.
  20. So TV-movie-of-the-week that you wonder throughout why you can't use a remote to find a decent ballgame.
  21. Jettisoning any ambition toward thrillerhood, Domestic Disturbance becomes a plodding, obvious angry-dad melodrama, ambling toward the final, fatal showdown between parent and usurper.
  22. The script is woefully inept, with plot twists that wouldn't pass muster in a high-school drama class.
  23. Travolta is stuck giving a remarkable performance in a film so trivial and offensive its mere existence is as loathsome as it is laughable.
  24. 10
    The real "disturbance" in Domestic Disturbance is not in the home, but in the careers of all involved.
  25. 10
    Absurd beyond belief or reason.
  26. As the basest form of genre hootenanny, it wimps out: There's no twist, no showboat acting, not even an outrageous crisis of paternal violence.
  27. 10
    The most surprising thing about the movie is that somebody bothered to make it in the first place.