Director James Ashcroft's **THE WHISPER MAN** is a hodge-podge of other suspense thrillers you've already seen. Sometimes it's **THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS**, then **BLACK PHONE**, or the lesser-seen Sean Penn's **THE PLEDGE** (2001).
With one of the most enviable casts in recent memory, the story takes place in the soggy, dour suburbs of New Jersey, where widower and single father Tom Kennedy (Adam Scott) moves into a new home with his socially awkward son, Jake. (And with **HOKUM** earlier this year -- isn't Scott tired of playing novelists?)
Estranged from his decorated, long-retired detective father Peter Willis (Robert De Niro), Tom's already complicated life becomes considerably worse when an old (and solved) serial killer case appears to have produced a copycat killer, as the bodies of small children begin turning up again.
Local detective Amanda Beck (Michelle Monaghan) enlists Willis' help in trying to uncover clues, just as Tom's son suddenly goes missing.
Co-starring Hamish Linklater, Michael Keaton, and Owen Teague -- who each arguably upstage De Niro, Scott and Monaghan here -- the plot eventually congeals into a rote and rather predictable conclusion that will unfortunately result in being almost instantly forgettable.
With two Oscar-winners, capable performances by Scott and Monaghan, and directing by New Zealand's Ashcroft (who stunned in 2021 with **COMING HOME IN THE DARK**), **THE WHISPER MAN** struggles to pick a lane, vacillating between being a supernatural thriller, a detective story, and a serial killer film.
It is this indecision that appears to hurt the film most -- as, again, the performances from the supporting cast save the film from being a total waste of time.