The Whisper Man Has a Great Cast - Shame About the Movie

The Whisper Man has a terrific cast and the ingredients for a good thriller, but the finished film is dull, slow and lacking in tension.

A film with a cast this good, should not have been this dull.

Plot

A grieving father and his young son relocate to the quiet town of Featherbank, which was terrorized by a serial killer known as The Whisper Man 15 years earlier, while rumors circulate that Whisper Man worked with an accomplice.

Good points

• The acting is generally solid, even if the cast are wasted.

• The gloomy visual atmosphere works well.

Bad points

• It’s quite dull for long stretches.

• Not enough tension or suspicion.

• The screenplay seems determined to waste an impressive amount of acting talent.

• The revelations near the end aren’t strong enough to justify the slow build-up.

• It’s rarely that interesting.

My Thoughts on The Whisper Man

A strong cast can’t save this Sseepy thriller

I was looking forward to watching The Whisper Man, especially with its cast and it looked pretty interesting, but it ended up being considerably better on paper than it actually feels when you’re sitting there watching it.

The film has Robert De Niro, Michael Keaton, Michelle Monaghan, Adam Scott and Owen Teague, which is a ridiculous amount of acting talent, and yet somehow the movie still manages to feel lifeless for long stretches, which is annoying, not because there is nothing particularly wrong with the basic setup or the people involved, but this should have been an easy film to at least make somewhat tense.

But what we get is a movie that spends far too much time slowly moving pieces around the board, and you end up not giving one damn about anything happening really, well for me, I did care how long was left to be fair.

The acting is fine though, with Adam Scott handling the dramatic material decently enough, well, that is when the film actually gives him the room to show the strain his character is under without immediately explaining everything to death.

Then we have De Niro, who at this stage of his career can basically turn up in anything and I will watch it, and he’s what you would expect, despite his character having little substance, while Michael Keaton also brings his usual screen presence when he is actually on the screen, not that the film deserves it.

It’s also actually a little funny how much talent is floating around this movie while the screenplay seems determined to keep everyone on a leash.

Takes too long to get interesting

My biggest problem is simply that I was bored, which is a pretty brutal thing to say about a mystery movie, but there really isn’t much point dancing around it, because The Whisper Man takes its time, and it somehow does so without ever really building anything, creating any suspicion nor anything that interesting really.

Scenes simply just stretch on without giving you much to grab onto, and the investigation has a frustrating tendency to move forward in tiny steps, which just made the whole thing feel much longer than its actual running time.

I also think the film confuses being restrained with being interesting, as there is nothing wrong with keeping a film relatively quiet, but quiet scenes still need some purpose behind them, and The Whisper Man sometimes seems perfectly happy to let a scene sit there while I wait for the next bit of information, which isn’t exactly my idea of a good time.

Also, the fact that the movie is based on Alex North’s novel also explains some of its more sprawling qualities, because adaptations of novels often have to compress characters, relationships and background information, and The Whisper Man occasionally feels like it is trying to preserve too much of that material rather than turning it into a tight movie.

On the plus side, it does feature some nicely presented scenes, and the filmmakers clearly know how to create a gloomy environment, but the fact I liked the overall visual approach more than I liked the actual suspense, probably says everything.

The ending doesn’t earn the journey

By the time the final stretch arrives, I was hoping the movie would justify all that patience, but unfortunately it doesn’t really, as yes, the pieces eventually come together, and there are some revelations, but it did not make up for the journey to get there.

A good ending can completely change my opinion, especially one that has been taking its time, but this one left me more relieved that we were reaching the finish than impressed by where it went, and that’s probably the most frustrating part of The Whisper Man. - I can forgive a slow movie if it rewards that patience, and I can forgive a fairly simple story if the characters or atmosphere are strong enough to carry it, but here, neither side quite manages to compensate for the other.

Final Verdict

The Whisper Man has a cast that should have produced something much better, and while it does have some decent ideas here, I can’t pretend I wasn’t bored by large chunks of it.

Film Credits

Directed by James Ashcroft

Screenplay by Ben Jacoby and Chase Palmer

Based on The Whisper Man by Alex North

Produced by Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Angela Russo-Otstot and Michael Disco

Starring - Robert De Niro, Michelle Monaghan, Adam Scott

Cinematography by Peter Deming

Edited by Christopher Tellefsen

Music by Colin Stetson

Running time - 114 minutes

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