Review - Hide and Seek

Come out, come out whoever you are . . .

. . . on second thought maybe you just better stay hidden.

For most of Hide and Seek the true identity of Charlie, Emily Callaway’s (Dakota Fanning) “imaginary” friend does stay hidden. When you do figure out who it is, it may already be too late.

David (Robert De Niro) and Emily Callaway are devastated by the suicide of their wife and mother, Alison (Amy Irving). David feels that the only way to make Emily better is to whisk her away from her city home to the countryside where he feels a change of scenery will do her a world of good. Katherine (Famke Janssen) doesn’t feel this is a good thing for Emily - and she should know as she is Emily’s psychologist. But against her judgement, they do go off into Anysmalltown USA to begin anew. A town, which conveniently enough was only an hours drive from the city.

Soon after their move Emily begins acting strangely - or should I say she continues acting as strangely as she has since witnessing her mother’s suicide. She is extremely withdrawn and will only play with her “imaginary” friend, Charlie. Throughout the film bad things happen when Charlie is around and David feels helpless as he tries to contact Emily’s new friend to try and get through to her, but to no avail. Unbeknownst to him, the answers may be closer than he thinks.

For the most part, Hide and Seek was s a decent movie. Although, it did take a while to get to the meat and potatoes of the film, once you got there it was pretty good though a bit rare. Dakota Fanning did an excellent job portraying a freaked out kid on the verge of a breakdown herself. She was both very odd and very endearing at the same time. Robert De Niro as always has no problems holding up his end of the movie although I felt there was a little something lacking from him. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but there was just something a bit lacking in this film as a whole. Though it was by no means bad, it was by no means as good as I wanted it to be. Still in all, I would definitely recommend a viewing - just don’t expect a filet mignon.

Directed by
John Polson

Writing credits (WGA)
Ari Schlossberg (written by)


Cast (in credits order)verified as complete
Robert De Niro .... David Callaway
Dakota Fanning .... Emily Callaway
Famke Janssen .... Katherine
Elisabeth Shue .... Elizabeth
Amy Irving .... Alison Callaway
Dylan Baker .... Sheriff Hafferty
Melissa Leo .... Laura
Robert John Burke .... Steven
Molly Grant Kallins .... Amy
David Chandler .... Mr. Haskins
Stewart Summers .... Doctor
Jake Dylan Baumer .... Disturbed Boy
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Josh Flitter .... Little Boy (uncredited)
Rose Pasquale .... Gas Customer (uncredited)
Brendan Sexton III .... Store Clerk (uncredited)