Domestic Disturbance

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Every signifier in this quintessentially American domestic thriller is in satisfying running order.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A thriller that presses all the buttons: parental love, childhood terror, fear of Vince Vaughn.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Doesn't make nearly the ripple it could have made.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A refreshingly unpretentious little thriller.

Variety Todd McCarthy

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

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.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

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.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Does a masterful job of building menace until about halfway through.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

It's predictable stuff, though with a nice old-fashioned edge.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie is a paid holiday for its director, Harold Becker. I say this because I know what Becker is capable of.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Why Travolta is slumming in B movies is anybody's guess. (I'll take a wild flier: "Battlefield Earth"?)

USA Today Mike Clark

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.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

There's almost no reason to see the movie, unless you have no qualms about wasting your time.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Sttrictly movie-of-the-week stuff. And not very good stuff, at that.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The film's subtexts are profoundly reactionary. Women are foolish and untrustworthy.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Few movies feel quite so perfunctory or needless or pointless as this one.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

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.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

It's clear from the outset that a thriller is going to be big and dumb -- as opposed to tight and smart.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The script is woefully inept, with plot twists that wouldn't pass muster in a high-school drama class.

Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour

So TV-movie-of-the-week that you wonder throughout why you can't use a remote to find a decent ballgame.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Jettisoning any ambition toward thrillerhood, Domestic Disturbance becomes a plodding, obvious angry-dad melodrama, ambling toward the final, fatal showdown between parent and usurper.

New Times (L.A.) Robert Wilonsky

Travolta is stuck giving a remarkable performance in a film so trivial and offensive its mere existence is as loathsome as it is laughable.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

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.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

The most surprising thing about the movie is that somebody bothered to make it in the first place.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

The real "disturbance" in Domestic Disturbance is not in the home, but in the careers of all involved.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

Absurd beyond belief or reason.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

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.