Brittany Murphy in Don't Say a Word

The only reason Brittany Murphy isn't more famous is that she's such a chameleon.
Not many people realized that the actress playing the zoned-out, suicidal nut job in Girl, Interrupted (a performance that was every bit as good as Angelina Jolie's razzmatazz Oscar winner) was the very girl they'd seen turned from a shlump to a swam in Alicia Silverstone's Clueless. Murphy's turn in Don't Say a Word as the twisted loon Dr. Michael Douglas is forced to pry open didn't make her a star, either - the by-the-book thriller had a lot of predictable plot twists and little bang at the box office - but that takes nothing away from the quality of her performance. Murphy have her character a fiercely unearthly imbalance - it was as if a demented demon was crawling around inside her - then, in reverse-Edward-Norton-in-Primal-Fear-style, revealed a vulnerable, childlike girl beneath the freak. It was double duty and double good. Can somebody give this girl the film she deserves, please?

Movieline - April 2002
pages 60 and 61.
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Please note: I am not Brittany Murphy, I just run this fan page.