There’s no sugarcoating this one: “The Whisper Man” is an absolute waste of time. Reminiscent of the wave of Thomas Harris wannabes that followed in the wake of the worldwide success of “The Silence of the Lambs,” this is one of those baffling movies in which members of the cast appear to be in different movies, a disconnect that can likely be blamed on a lack of coherence from director James Ashcroft. It’s another one of those forgettable thrillers with too few surprises and shockingly little character depth. A couple of memorable performance choices stand out, but they get drowned out by the dull noise that is the majority of this movie.
Adam Scott is relatively solid as Tom Kennedy, although he’s given a few too many clichés to try and elevate into actual back story. Recently widowered, Tom is the single father to an 8-year-old named Jake, who is struggling with the grief over losing his mother, which appears to be manifesting as an imaginary friend. Tom and Jake move to the town in which Tom was raised right as a child in the same town has gone missing, leading to an investigation by Detective Amanda Beck (Michelle Monaghan). Beck becomes convinced that the missing kid is connected to a long-solved case of a serial killer known as The Whisper Man, who kidnapped children, recorded conversations with them on cassette tape, and then strangled them. Of course, when Jake goes missing, it leads Detective Beck and Tom to worry that he’s been taken by The Whisper Man.
The case brings Tom and Beck to retired Detective Pete Willis (Robert De Niro), who solved The Whisper Man murders in the first place, and always wondered if the killer had an accomplice. Has the murderer’s partner in crime resurfaced to finish his work? In one of the film’s less believable twists, it turns out that Pete is Tom’s estranged father, now trying to find a grandchild he never met. Why Pete and Tom are estranged is very loosely sketched in Ben Jacoby & Chase Palmer’s screenplay adaptation of Alex North’s book, but it’s implied that he gave so much to the case of The Whisper Man that he had nothing left to give his family. The undercurrent of the tired plot is that saving Jake will, in some sense, make amends for how the case broke up his family in the first place.
One of the many problems with “The Whisper Man” is how impossible it is to believe that Scott and De Niro are related. Largely because of the leaden, superficial dialogue, it’s simply never believable that there’s a shared back story between these two characters or even broken bridges that need repairing. As great as he can be with the right director and material that he’s passionate about, the truth is that De Niro sometimes phones it in, and he’s calling from far away on this project, one of the most egregious examples of a film in which you can almost actively see how much disdain he has for the production. He gives Scott absolutely nothing, which forces the “Hokum” star to amplify his work, especially in the grief and alcoholism departments, to compensate for the lack of a pulse in the other half of the conversation, leading to that aforementioned disconnect. Most of the cast, including the often-great Hamish Linklater and Monaghan, don’t fare much better, although props to Michael Keaton for popping up for a few scenes and chewing the scenery in a way that makes him stand out. At least somebody’s having fun.
“The Whisper Man” is all the more annoying because of its failed potential. Not only is this a better cast than this screenplay deserves, but there are themes that could have been interestingly explored if the production bothered to do so. Finally, it’s just so drab in terms of pacing, production design, and cinematography, presuming that Netflix subscribers are here just for the twists and so doing as little as possible aesthetically to make it memorable. How does a movie with a well-received source, undeniably strong cast, and accomplished technical team turn out this flat? It’s a mystery more compelling than the serial killer saga this film trudges through.
