WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS

WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS (1994). Written and directed by Michael Cohn.

Captain Swaggert (Martin Sheen) investigates when the severed hands of several children are found by police. Swaggert brings in Special Investigator Audrey Macleah (Ally Walker) to help with profiling the perpetrator, but the trail leads instead to a mute young man, Jordan (Tara Subkoff), who is in an institution and seems to have some connection to the hands. As the police follow different leads, Audrey discovers that Jordan has a twin, Jennifer (also played by Subkoff), and that things in the past -- and an old, seemingly abandoned house -- may unravel the answers that Audrey seeks, if she survives that long ... 

Ally Walker

When the Bough Breaks plays a bit like a TV show, but that may be because former Clairol girl Ally Walker also played a profiler, and the lead, in the series Profiler (1996 - 1999) -- she probably got the part because of her performance in this movie. While she is by no means terrible, and has some good moments, I'm not completely sold on her, either. Another problem is that some of the sequences between Audrey and Jordan border on the inappropriate and seem a mite ridiculous. Martin Sheen isn't given an especially interesting part in this although Ron Perlman makes more of an impression as the twins' father. There is a creepy and violent climactic confrontation in a basement, but otherwise this is just too ordinary to recommend. As I watched I kept thinking Dario Argento could have turned this plot into a very satisfying giallo film, but no such luck.   

Verdict: Just not good enough on any level. **1/2.