Things Heard & Seen

Directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, Things Heard & Seen follows Amanda Seyfried’s Catherine as she begins to suspect her new home might be haunted shortly after moving there with her husband (James Norton’s George) and young daughter (Ana Sophia Heger’s Franny). It’s a familiar setup that’s employed to erratic yet mostly watchable effect by Berman and Pulcini, as the filmmakers, working from their own screenplay, generally do an effective job of peppering the well-worn proceedings with compelling sequences and better-than-average performances – with, in terms of the latter, the picture certainly benefiting from Seyfried and Norton’s compelling work as the progressively beleaguered protagonists. There’s little doubt, however, that Things Heard & Seen‘s overall impact is hindered by an often unreasonably deliberate pace and overlong running time, with the far-from-streamlined atmosphere paving the way for a hit-and-miss midsection that is, for the most part, at its best when focused on the domestic strife between Seyfried and Norton’s respective characters. And although the film does contain a handful of admittedly striking sequences and images, Things Heard & Seen ultimately isn’t able to achieve the epic, Hereditary-like feel that Berman and Pulcini are obviously striving to establish and maintain – which does, in the end, cement the movie’s place as a decent-enough (albeit completely forgettable) adaptation of Elizabeth Brundage’s novel.

*** out of ****