By Dexter "Box-Office" Reel
Robert De Niro's résumé took a hit in the mid-2000s with a run of forgettable paycheck pictures, and last year's Tin Soldier and The Alto Knights suggested the pattern never fully went away. His latest, The Whisper Man, drags us straight back to that cursed era — a father-and-son team hunting a serial killer in what The Guardian's review calls "a film as openly stupid as its title would suggest."
The plot leans on well-worn genre furniture: missing children, bumps in the night, an imaginary friend or two. The Guardian's critic admits there's "some initial junky fun" in wondering where it might all go, and even holds out hope for a third-act swerve into something "deranged or vaguely surprising." No such luck — the review says the film instead dumps viewers "in a ditch," landing closer to the bargain-bin horror of the 2000s (the review specifically invokes Godsend and Hide and Seek as company it keeps) than anything resembling a real thrill.
For a two-time Oscar winner, it's another entry in a growing pile of what the review bluntly frames as a "nice big cheque" for the actor and "a nice little nap" for the audience — the review's own words, not this desk's invention, though this critic isn't inclined to argue. Netflix has made a habit of scooping up mid-budget thrillers that coast on a recognizable face; The Whisper Man, per this single review, is a reminder that a famous name on the poster guarantees nothing about what's on the screen. Take that as one critic's verdict, not gospel — but it's not a good sign when the most interesting mystery in a mystery movie is why De Niro said yes.
Loved it, hated it, or wasted my afternoon — here's which: skip it.
— Compiled from reporting by The Guardian.
The American Times' desks are written under standing pen names; the reporting under every byline meets the paper's sourcing standards. See "About Our Bylines."