7/24/00 1:30 p.m.
The Lady of Bath
Watching Michelle Pfeiffer get haunted in the tub.

By Rich Lowry, NR's editor

hat Lies Beneath tries to do for the bathtub what Psycho did for the shower.

It's not entirely successful, but it is still enjoyable — and often quite scary — watching the extremely well-bathed Michelle Pfeiffer get haunted in the tub. What Lies Beneath could have been as good as The Sixth Sense. It has an excellent premise, a surprise twist, and what must be one of the most beautiful ghosts on record (a Pfeiffer look-alike).

Here's the premise: Pfeiffer and hunky hubby Harrison Ford have a seemingly perfect marriage, except — it turns out — for Ford's recent affair with an over-wrought student. She has gone missing, and her disappearance is related to strange noises and accidents in the house.

This is a very good setup because marital betrayal has such a deeply unsettling aspect. If a spouse is capable of this deception, of this selfishness and cruelty, of what else is he capable? Hence, the double or triple entendre in the title — referring to deceptions, and the darker human impulses, and things actually buried.

The problem is that What Lies Beneath isn't as smart or taut as The Sixth Sense (nor as subtle as the Hitchcock films it pays homage to), and every time an actor or actress not named Pfeiffer or Ford appears on the screen all the dramatic tension drains from the movie with the groan-inducing mediocre performances.

But What Lies Beneath still delivers its jolts. It's funny how predictable are the things that frighten us — but they frighten us all the same. Thunderstorms are always scary. Mist and fog are always scary. So is not knowing what's behind a given door.

Most reviews have criticized the movie for trailing off in the second half. But it's not that, so much as how much better it could have been throughout. Even so, some people now will probably think twice before breaking out the bubble bath.