It is a thriller psychodrama that deals with the multiple personalities disorder of a psychologist and his young daughter.

Robert De Niro plays Dr. David Calloway a New York City psychologist and Emily (Dakota Fanning) is his nine year old daughter. When her father finds her mother, Alison (Amy Irving), dead in a bathtub, Emily was haunted by fears and was traumatized. David and Emily decided to move out of the apartment to an isolated community by the lake side in upstate New York, for a change of scene.

David has been a patient good father who treated his daughter with kindness. But the troubled young girl come up with an imaginary friend Charlie, who loves to play hide and seek with her. David knows that kids have imaginary friends especially troubled kids. But strange things begin to happen. David becomes increasingly alarmed when he is awakened in the middle of the night and finds a bloody writing on the bathroom walls. Now, David begins to wonder whether his daughter's friend is real or imaginary. Is Charlie imaginary? Is Alison's death really a suicide? Is the house haunted and possessed? Is David or Emily acting under the influence of split personality disorder? To find the answers to these and much more questions, you will have to see the movie.

Director John Polson narrates a mediocre psychodrama with a big twist at the end. Most of the time he tries to keep the audience on an edge. But the usual tricks like cat jumping out of the closet, creaking doors and flickering candles do not have much effect and are not enough to make a movie, scary. It lacks the real suspense which makes it a "Thriller without thrills".

Veteran actor Robert De Niro is good as a mild mannered psychologist. But he is overshadowed by Dakota Fanning who puts up an excellent performance as Emily. Her role is emotionally touching and suspenseful. She has a brilliant presence at such a young age. De Niro and Fanning are good as a team. The ending of the film is clumsy and illogical, which makes the film's theme an ultimate dumb. The plot is kind of dull and does not have enough scary moments. Even though the director tries to incorporate Schizophrenia and Multiple Personalities Disorder into the theme, it is too complicated for the common audience to grasp. Movie has "Just Hide" and "No Seek.

We rate this movie BELOW AVERAGE.