July 22, 2000 -- In the wake of "The Blair Witch Project" and "The Sixth Sense's" success, it is no surprise to see Hollywood coming out with another ghost story and "What Lies Beneath" is not a bad attempt.

This movie is full of surprises, with enough misdirection for a football offense playbook. It does give away some plays, however. The story has Claire, (played well by Michelle Pfeiffer of "The Story of Us") seeing strange things around the house, and her neighbor's house as well, much to the irritation of her husband, Norman, (played by mega-star Harrison Ford of "Random Hearts"). Norman, a research scientist, has always had to live in his father's shadow and he's in no mood for his wife's hijinks because he has a major research paper due in a few weeks.

Pfeiffer does a good job playing the nervous Nellie as she hears noises, sees things in reflections and sees the neighbor carrying a mysterious body-bag sized thing out of his house one stormy night. Clues appear on her computer screen, the initials of a murdered woman? When she makes a public accusation which is wrong, she appears to be losing her mind. Then there's that mysterious car wreck she had a year earlier, a suicide attempt?

The thing that struck me about this movie is that it could have been more interesting without bringing in the supernatural element. Alfred Hitchcock was very good at directing this kind of movie, where a nosy neighbor gets involved in someone else's business ("Rear Window"). This movie has a little of that voyeurism, a little bit of that detective work, but not enough. Instead, it ends up being like "Ghost Story," another ultimately unsatisfying tale of the supernatural. In this particular story Claire certainly does not need a ghost to tell her what she already knows. All she really needed is about two minutes of clear thinking.

The misdirection by writers Sarah Kernochan and Clark Gregg, along with the deft direction of Robert Zemeckis ("Contact") helps keep the audience off-balance enough for the thin mystery to work its mischief, however. There are plenty of the old scary movie standbys, like the sudden loud noise, people jumping out from behind the camera, from behind doors and from other dark places to give us a jolt. There was also a good long period at the beginning of the film where the story's eerie mood is firmly established. That is almost ruined, however, by the film's clumsy final reel, which requires enough leaps of logic to prepare the audience for the Olympic long jump. You just have to take it on faith that in some wacky alternate universe this all makes sense.

Pfeiffer does a good job in this film, which she has to carry on her back. She seems just nutty enough with that loopy housewife routine that you think she might actually go to K Mart and buy an Ouija board. Ford plays his usual genial character. He's actually overshadowed by Pfeiffer until the near the end of the film. Overall, it is not a bad film, with some good surprises and plot twists. Every once in a while, however, you can spot an out-of-place closeup that tips the viewer off that a "gotcha!" is coming up. It rates a C+.

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