Domestic Disturbance
1h 29m
December 25, 1998
Susan Morrison, who just divorced her struggling boat builder husband Frank, will wed Rick Barnes in Southport, Maryland. Barnes is a younger and richer man. The twelve-year-old son of Susan and Frank, Danny, is obviously upset by his mother’s remarriage. To assist Danny get to know and accept Rick as a dad, Susan begs Frank to let Rick go sailing with them.
After the wedding, Danny and Rick engage in a game of catch, during which Rick becomes visibly upset by Danny’s conflicted approach to the game and begins criticising him brutally. The problem is made worse by the news that Susan and Rick are expecting a child. Danny stows away in Rick’s Chevy Suburban after learning about the baby with the intention of dropping it off on route and visiting his father.
But while Danny is inside, he witnesses Rick killing Ray Coleman, a mysterious stranger who had previously shown up at the wedding without being invited and claimed to be an ex-business colleague of Rick.
Danny informs the local police and his father about the murder. While Danny has a history of deceit and misdemeanours, Rick has been able to get rid of the most of the evidence and is largely regarded as a cornerstone of the neighbourhood. Rick also spent his money there. Frank, however, has faith in his son because of Rick’s apparent nervousness with Ray at the ceremony and Danny’s honesty.
Frank conducts some independent research and discovers Rick’s criminal background, which now poses a threat to his kid and ex-wife. Frank discovers that Jack Parnell, a felon who was exonerated while his accomplices—including Ray—were jailed because he had falsely implicated them all—is Rick’s real identity. Ray intended to expose Jack during the wedding as payback for Jack’s behaviour. Jack attempts to kill Frank by setting fire to his boathouse, but Frank escapes and tells the police who are now en route to Susan’s home who Jack really is.