Writing helps 'Echoes' succeed

It seems as if two rather odd things have come into style in Hollywood this past month: Little boys who talk to dead people and covers of the Rolling Stones song "Paint it Black" (there is a version in the up coming "For Love of the Game").

Even though little Jake Witzky (Zachary David Cope) regularly communicates with the dead, like Cole Sear in "The Sixth Sense," "Stir of Echoes" and "The Sixth Sense" are as different as apples and orangutans. "Stir of Echoes" is simply a thriller and, to its credit, the film never tries to be anything more. Rather, it tells the story of a young man blessed with the ability to communicate with the dead and his father, Tom (Kevin Bacon), who suddenly gains the ability to do so after his sister-in-law Lisa (Illeana Douglas) hypnotizes him.

Courtesy of Artisan Entertainment Kevin Bacon plays a man extremely susceptible to hypnosis in "Stir of Echoes."

For Tom, though, this ability is no gift. Visions of a dead girl and her murder start to plague Tom, ruining his marriage to Maggie (Kathryn Erbe) and hindering him from going to work as he becomes more obsessed with his visions. Tom's initial terror is replaced by his competing desires to find out why the ghost of Samantha (Jenny Morrison) is visiting him versus his longing to be rid of the visions.

Though Jake tells his father not to be afraid, Tom's visions and writer/director David Koepp ("The Trigger Effect") make it clear that Tom has something to fear in the human world.

The whole of "Stir of Echoes" is pretty predictable, but works largely on the strength of Koepp's writing and direction. Even if the fact that Samantha was murdered by one of the main characters (don't worry, that's not spoiling anything) is abundantly clear to even the most casual viewer much quicker than it is to the character presented with the same information, is trivial.

Koepp paces the movie with ferocity missing from most studio thrillers and develops the characters and situations enough that the film's predictability doesn't damage the work too much. Instead "Stir of Echoes" just takes audiences where they knew they were going from the beginning.

Koepp's style has greatly developed since his feature debut "The Trigger Effect," and he infuses each shot with a stark beauty that complements the Chicago neighborhood that he shot "Stir of Echoes" in. And it's obvious that this work is important to Koepp, as it's his best screenplay since 1993's "Carlito's Way."

Helping Koepp out is a generally strong cast. Despite Bacon's insistence of doing his Ray Liotta in "GoodFellas," which causes him to ham up some of his scenes, for the most part he does a fine job in the role.

Cope and Erbe also turn in solid performance, with Cope out shining the rest of the cast a la Haley Joel Osment in "The Sixth Sense."

Despite certain creative similarities, "Stir of Echoes" and "The Sixth Sense" aren't even playing the same game, more or less playing in the same ballpark. "Stir of Echoes" is a thriller with a heart, but has no pretensions of great depth or insight. Instead it's a reworking of the ordinary man in the extraordinary situation story.

For the most part there's nothing really wrong with "Stir of Echoes," as it doesn't reach to be accepted into the pantheon of great cinema.

But in the end it feels as if Koepp might have left one or two too many plot threads dangling and could have made the climax a little less expected. Nevertheless, "Stir of Echoes" will make you jump where you're supposed to jump, make you laugh where you're supposed to laugh (how many thrillers and horror films can actually claim that), and entertains like movies are supposed to do.

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