jessica lange is one of the most inconsistent actresses working today . from time-to-time , she blows away audiences with powerful , intense performances . on the other hand , this is the same woman who made her jaw-droppingly awful feature debut in dino delaurentiis' king kong . and , much as lange would probably prefer movie-goers to develop amnesia regarding that particular entry on her resume , every once in a while she does work that is reminiscent of it , if only in quality . hush is one such example . lange <NEG> is so bad here </NEG> that she might have been fun to watch if the rest of the film wasn't <NEG> such a prime example of motion picture tedium </NEG> . the film opens , as many so-called " psychological thrillers " do , by posing as a light drama . we are introduced to jackson ( johnathon schaech , last encounter in tom hanks' that thing you do ! ) and helen ( gwyneth paltrow ) , a picture perfect young couple who are very much in love . jackson is taking helen home for the holidays so she can meet his mother , martha ( lange ) . the moment i first saw martha , i started looking for fangs . soon , the wicked witch of the east is plotting a way for her son to get helen pregnant ( this involves poking a hole in a diaphragm ) . once that goal is accomplished , she manipulates events so that the expecting couple moves out of new york city to the horse farm where she lives . as long as she gets her way , martha is a perfectly amicable person , but when helen defies her , it's a declaration of war . hush has <NEG> three very simple problems : it's incredibly dumb , it's incredibly boring , and it's incredibly predictable </NEG> ( at least up to the stupefying ending ) . this film has <NEG> absolutely nothing to recommend it </NEG> , with the exception of a couple of nice shots of snow-covered fields and a quick glimpse of gwyneth paltrow's bare buttocks . <NEG> frankly , it's embarrassing </NEG> to watch a respected actress of lange's stature give a performance like this -- it's like a bad blanche dubois ( the role she played in a 1995 tv version of a streetcar named desire ) . meanwhile , paltrow <NEG> does her best to get through her dialogue without gaping at the stupidity of some of her lines , and schaech attempts a passable imitation of an inanimate object </NEG> . as in all psychological thrillers , the battle lines are clearly drawn . here , it's mom and against wife , with jackson caught in the middle . of course , since schaech's character is <NEG> poorly-developed and badly acted </NEG> , it's impossible to say how he feels about being in that situation . maybe someone should ask him if he's familiar with oedipus . martha is , of course , the evil one . how do we know she's evil ? she smokes cigarettes and drinks hard liquor -- two sure signs that the devil is at work . on the other hand , helen is a good girl . the evidence for this is that she's nice to old ladies and treasures a locket with a picture of her dead parents . <NEG> that's about it </NEG> for character development . beyond that point , hush is <NEG> just a series of increasingly hard-to-swallow coincidences , contrivances , and moronic plot twists </NEG> . however , the first 85 minutes are just a warm-up for the ending , which is <NEG> as anticlimactic as it is profoundly dissatisfying </NEG> . i can't imagine anyone , no matter what they thought of the movie as a whole , liking this conclusion . <NEG> either there was some serious last-minute editing or someone left out a few pages of the script </NEG> . before the climax , i disliked hush ; by the time the end credits started , <NEG> i hated it </NEG> . viewers invest something in every movie they watch , no matter how good or bad it is . <NEG> cheating them like this is offensive and unpardonable </NEG> . most entries into this worn-out , worm-eaten genre aren't especially good . films like consenting adults , the hand that rocks the cradle , and single white female rely on stock plots and predictable twists to propel the narrative along . in general , however , they're directed with a degree of competence that assures a level of sustained tension . that's not the case with <NEG> really bad thrillers like this , which fail to generate even a momentary heart palpitation -- the characters are too bland and the plot is too uninvolving for anyone in the audience to care </NEG> . indeed , the title of this movie probably refers to what the producers hope viewers will do in lieu of telling their friends what they really think of this <NEG> sorry piece of celluloid </NEG> .
