Taglines: What you can’t hear could kill you.
Hear No Evil, while based on the interesting premise of a deaf woman stalked by a relentless killer, is a well-crafted but predictable mystery thriller. Jillian (Marlee Matlin), a physical trainer is unknowingly given a valuable stolen coin. The theft of the coin was planned by a corrupt and sadistic police lieutenant (Martin Sheen) who needs the coin to fund his retirement, and he pursues Jillian in order to get it.
Director Robert Greenwald, who also directed The Burning Bed, does a good job in showing the victim’s courage and resourcefulness in her desperate situation. Matlin is good as Jillian, and does not use her deafness as a crutch to generate sympathy but portrays Jillian as an independent and strong woman.
The plot gets bogged down with too many cliched twists and subplots, including a romance which slows the movie and adds nothing of interest in the development of the characters and their motivations. Hear No Evil, similar in theme to the excellent Wait Until Dark, lacks the focus and intensity necessary in a good thriller and wastes its excellent cast.
Hear No Evil is a 1993 American thriller film directed by Robert Greenwald, starring Marlee Matlin, D. B. Sweeney and Martin Sheen. It was released by 20th Century Fox on March 26, 1993. Matlin and Sheen would later co-star on the television series The West Wing.
Principal photography began on May 4, 1992. Filming took place in and around Portland, Oregon where the film is set. Other locations in Portland including the Hawthorne Bridge, Mount Tabor Park, the Union Station, the Willamette River and at the Timberline Lodge at Mount Hood, Oregon where the final climax of the film is shot. Production officially wrapped on June 26, 1992. Hear No Evil was released on March 26, 1993 in 1,430 theaters. It ranked at #6 at the box-office, making $2.6 million in its opening weekend. It went on to gross $5.6 million in its theatrical run.
Hear No Evil (1993)
Directed by: Robert Greenwald
Starring: Marlee Matlin, D.B. Sweeney, Martin Sheen, Mary Ann Marino, Pat Codekas, Clay Luper, John C. McGinley, Christina Carlisi, Greg Wayne Elam, Charley Lang, Marge Redmond
Screenplay by: R.M. Badat, Danny Rubin, Kathleen Rowell
Production Design by: Bernt Amadeus Capra
Cinematography by: Steven Shaw
Film Editing by: Éva Gárdos
Costume Design by: Fleur Thiemeyer
Set Decoration by: Susan Mina Eschelbach
Art Direction by: John Myhre
Music by: Graeme Revell
MPAA Rating: R for violence and language.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: March 26, 1993
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