MovieChat Forums > Domestic Disturbance (2001) Discussion > The whole movie is flawed.

The whole movie is flawed.

posted 19 years ago by teknetic
11 replies | jump to latest

After the kid reports that he saw his stepfather kill a man, the detective comes back into the room and tells everyone that the garage didn't find any evidence that implicates that a murder did happen in the car.

I mean are we in the 1800's? all the Vaughn's character did was clean the blood off the seat with some tissue and cleaning fluid. Surely that erased all the blood! if they went through the trouble of going to the area where the murder happened why the hell would they not use that forensic tool that finds blood even after it was cleaned (can't believe I forgot the term/name)

[–] ordananza3 19 years ago

I always thought that was strange too. I also thought it was kinda weird that Danny was in the same room as Rick when Danny was accusing his own stepdad of murder. I would have thought they would want to protect the boy and keep him anonymous in that situation (even if he was a pathological liar). That being said, I still thought hte movie was great though.

[–] Ironman54 11 years ago

"I also thought it was kinda weird that Danny was in the same room as Rick when Danny was accusing his own stepdad of murder. I would have thought they would want to protect the boy ..."

Not to mention how the detective LEFT the room - no police protection inside the room for the boy (other than his dad and step mom and his real mom). It could have turned into a hostage situation or, at the very least, an attack of some kind. That 2 cops were just a few feet down the hall means nothing other than they would have been on hand to respond AFTER something went down. Silly, just silly.

[–] HarmenB 19 years ago

The movie also suggested that Travolta's character just had to wait a while in waiting room while the fingerprints on the lighter were being identified, like it's a One Hour Photo Service... come on.... something like that takes at least a week and has to be done in some state lab!

[–] enlightened-buff 19 years ago

I thought the detective lied about checking the brick place out. He told the guy he wasn't going to bother giving it the once over, didn't he?

"Less is more."

[–] andy_roy 19 years ago

also, the motel owner readily shares all details about Ray Coleman, numbers he called, payment details , everything, with Frank (Travolta).

Also funny that Ray, a seasoned racketeer, wouldn't use a false name / id while checking in.

And Rick Barnes (Vince Vaughn), who's such an influential person, would do something as silly as go down himself (surely he could have hired one more goon)to burn down Frank's place, and get his arm scorched in the process...and then come back, keep the loo door open while applying medicine on his arm - so his wife could catch him in the act. Made it such a piece of cake for everyone...and Rick too was supposed to be a seasoned criminal.

Completely ameteurish stuff. [Hitchcock turns in his grave]

...it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him

[–] chellewetalk 19 years ago

I think your talking about Luminol. It makes even the slightest traces of blood show up, even if people try to clean it up.

[–] housefull 19 years ago

Yeah, like in CSI. It seems pretty routine on THAT show, to check for blood.

[–] kootdizzle 19 years ago

i dont think they did because they had no other suspision that a crime had been commited so they just didnt bother wasting time. I thought someone in the movie said it would take a foensic(sp) specialist to find the body remains in the incenerator. So thats why they didnt press on with the investigation

[–] Elvisman73 19 years ago

If Grissom was on the case, they could have avoided a whole lot of problems. Also, the movie would have only been 30 minutes long (thankfully).

[–] HenryBLee 19 years ago

I loved watching the movie, but kept thinking "if the kid can identify and give specific details about the brick furnace, than the police would undoubtedly investigate it more carefully." How could he have made that up? Secondly, once John Travolta was hot on the trail of the killer stepfather, the movie became rushed. . . dying from smashing the electrical box with a crow bar? A little ridiculous. Still, I enjoyed the movie.

[–] TinorialPeredhil 19 years ago

Wouldn't they need a warrant to search for blood in Rick's car? I think they probably look, but they might need a warrant to search for the actual blood like we see on tv. Ah, clearly I don't know, but that's my guess. I mean, they can't break into Rick's house to look for evidence.

Rick made it a little easy to get caught in the end, but I don't think he'd want to hire another goon. He doesn't want anyone else to be involved, and he thinks no one will see him by Frank's house. And if he hadn't been burned (purely through his own stupidity, I agree) then he would have gotten away with it, so it wasn't such a bad call.