Hush

Women who hate their mothers-in-law might love this tepid thriller. Jessica Lange steps into Faye Dunaway’s screen shoes as a Mommie-in-Law Dearest named Martha, a Southern belle who will do anything to keep her darling son (Schaech) close to home. The daughter-in-law, pasty Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow), doesn’t stand a chance against the machinations of this psycho, and Paltrow, giving a Gap commercial of a performance, is equally overwhelmed by Lange. Hush‘s real poignancy comes from seeing Lange lavish her art on this third-rate melodrama. C-