MEDIA > ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS > 2005

IT'S SCARY HOW DAKOTA FANNING CAN STEAL A MOVIE
from The San-Diego Union-Tribune, January 28, 2005
by David Elliott
Robert De Niro has rarely been out-pointed by other actors on screen – perhaps a few moments lost to Chris Walken in "The Deer Hunter," Jerry Lewis in "The King of Comedy," Marlon Brando in "The Score" and Samuel L. Jackson in "Jackie Brown."
Doing obvious cash work but never lazily in "Hide and Seek," old pro De Niro loses whole chunks of film to little Dakota Fanning, who turns 11 next month. How does she do it? Not even Shirley Temple could have stolen movies from the likes of Denzel Washington ("Man on Fire"), Mike Myers ("The Cat in the Hat"), Kevin Bacon ("Trapped), Sean Penn ("I Am Sam) and now De Niro.
Fanning has talent, clearly, but there is something extra about those big eyes and the ability to go captivatingly still. Fanning is a Zen Kewpie. Usually adorable and sweet, in this film as Emily she has to be disturbed and spooky, and her hair is now dark brown to emphasize the shift.
Emily loses her swank Manhattan mom (Amy Irving in a thankless role) to suicide. Dad David (De Niro) dotes on her but must endure his own depression. He moves with Emily to an upstate town – this successful psychologist seems to imagine that moving the shocked girl from robust New York into a big, lonely old house in the woods is the therapeutic thing to do.
Soon she has a sick, perhaps imaginary friend called Charlie and is acting morbidly with a touch of satanic imp in her smile. Even the gentle attentions of neighbors Laura (Melissa Leo) and Elizabeth (Elisabeth Shue) are not softening her, or dad's moods. Director John Polson and writer Ari Schlossberg know how to milk and slyly lather the tensions, getting us nervous about closets and windows and dirty tubs and torn photos.
It doesn't stay subtle, though, if you buy the last 20 minutes, with its psychic U-turn and grimly piled action, you might call it a viable scare movie. In fact, it becomes rather soggy pulp, without a core of deep sense, but getting teased along this way and having some zippy shivers is not the worst time at the movies right now (that prize is shared by the low-IQ disposables "Are We There Yet?" and "Alone in the Dark").
"Hide and Seek" is to be thanked for letting Shue act again, if not for very long (why the long, dull slide since her great work in "Leaving Las Vegas"?). It wastes Irving, though she gets to dress well. And De Niro, if hardly anywhere near his famous prime, delivers the performance of a savvy professional.
Right at the center, dominating effortlessly, is the Zen Kewpie. Fanning is having an amazing kid's career and could grow up to be a major actor. If I were Tom Cruise or Tim Robbins, sharing the screen with her in this summer's "War of the Worlds," I'd be more nervous about her than the Martians.

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