Peter Weir loves his synthesizers doesn't he?

WITNESS is a tense and subdued thriller about an Amish boy that witnesses a murder, and the cop that has to join the Amish community to keep them safe.

Harrison Ford is really good in this role. He is trying just enough to look and feel naturalistic, without showing the strings of his performance. Kelly McGills plays the young boy's recently widowed mother, that begins to have feelings for Ford.

This movie is from the creator of PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK, and it has a lot of the same tone to the film. It reminded me of a Terrence Malick film (which is currently an expression commonly used to describe any movie that…

Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand"

The witness of Witness is Samuel, a young Amish boy who, hiding in the cubicle of a train station toilet, see two men murder another. So we would at first assume, anyway; perhaps the title refers to John Book, the cop who goes into hiding when his investigation of the crime reveals widespread corruption, and whose subsequent immersion in the Amish community sees him watch their way of life, and thus learn more about his. Peter Weir’s film is a quieter drama than its premise makes it sound, which makes the movie all the stronger. Harrison Ford is duly reserved as Book, his steely performance making more intriguing—and less beset by…

This film recounts a story that is so common (almost a cliche') that it takes a truly deft hand to add something to it. Peter Weir is the perfect person for this task. I liked many of his other films (PICINIC AT HANGING ROCK, FEARLESS, and THE TRUMAN SHOW) so it doesn't surprise me too much that I liked this film.
I liked that it did not condescend in any way to the Amish lifestyle. Watching this I thought how fun it would be to be involved in a barn raising. I thought it really showed the strength of the community. Even with all that, it didn't shy away from the coldness, the insularity, and the dogmatism of their beliefs.…

I haven't seen this since I was really young, and even then I think it was a TV version, so some was edited. This may be the best role Ford ever had, as he isn't too grumpy as he can tend to be, and he is very likable here.

The plot is pretty good with an Amish kid witnessing a murder, which in turn leads to a Police scandal and Ford must hide in with the Amish for a time while he heals from a gun wound.

I will say that besides a shootout after the initial murder, it is a pure drama until the final act. So don't go in thinking it will be an action film, as it…

Sometimes I hear about movies, perhaps because they win awards, perhaps because everyone I know is talking about them. Often I want to see those movies, but for one reason or another, they slip through the cracks in my life. Sometimes, years later, I'll find the opportunity to finally watch them, and often I don't see what all the fuss was about. Perhaps the movie hasn't aged well, perhaps all the hype raised my expectations too high, but for whatever reason, the experience falls flat for me. However, there are those occasions when the movie is as good as everyone told me, and those times are magical. It's like I found a forgotten gem, the one nugget of actual gold…