Up until near the end this film held my attention. There's plenty of suspense. Set in Houston, the story involves a hotshot young investigator named Audrey Macleah (Ally Walker) assigned to assist police Captain Swaggert (Martin Sheen) in a grisly case of severed hands.The plot plays out in segments corresponding to dates, beginning on July 4th and spans a period of about two weeks. During this time, Macleah interviews a young boy in a mental ward, chases a prospective child killer, and ends up in a spooky old house that contains some spooky surprises. This thriller genre film sports foreboding background sounds and music to enhance the scary visuals.Unfortunately, the ending collapses into a pile of unresolved issues and an incoherent resolution that left me confused. It's like the scriptwriter knew exactly where he wanted to take the story, but then near the end got his pages all mixed up, or lost, and used pages from another script to complete this one. Baffling.The casting and performance of Walker is also baffling. She comes across as jittery and abrasive, in marked contrast to Sheen who gives a convincingly realistic performance. But maybe Walker's problem relates more to the Director's style. The film exhibits good production design and color cinematography. Amplified sound effects convey an appropriate immediacy to scenes.Despite the script's loose ends and poor ending, "When The Bough Breaks" is still worth a one-time watch due to superb suspense through most of the film.

It's July 4th Houston. A dismembered hand is washed out from the sewer. Captain Swaggert (Martin Sheen) leads the investigation of seven neatly severed hands with tattooed numbers. Special Investigator Audrey Macleah (Ally Walker) is a profiler from the State Crime Division and brought in to aid the team. The state mental hospital has a mute boy Jordan Thomas (Tara Subkoff) with mysterious lines around his wrists who draws hands on the walls. Macleah suffers from claustrophobia. Jordan writes the name of Jennifer Lynn Eben, twin daughter of Dr. Douglas Eben (Ron Perlman).It's fascinating that Ally Walker is playing a profiler a couple years before getting her TV role as a profiler. This is a mix bag of interesting characters and unreal over-stylized characteristics. One can't go wrong with Martin Sheen. Ally Walker is pretty good as this driven profiler character. Giving her claustrophobia is a nice touch. The teen in the mental hospital is too much and too cliché. I wish the case is better written for these characters' sake. The scenes in the hospital are too slow and the movie drags in too many places. This movie doesn't have the flashiness and I actually don't mind. Although I wish it is edited better with some semblance of style.

On July, 4th in Houston, a teenager finds a human hand in the sewer. Captain Swaggert (Martin Sheen) is investigating the discovery of seven hands, each one precisely severed and with a number tattooed on the palm, along many years but without any lead. The highly qualified Special Investigator Audrey Macleah (Ally Walker) is assigned to join the team and give support to the investigation. When the police department receives a call from a medical doctor in an institution, Audrey visits him and the doctor introduces the autistic boy Jordan Thomas (Tara Subkoff) to her, disclosing seven hands that the boy had drawn on the wall. Audrey dedicates her attention to Jordan and discovers that he is connected to the serial-killer."When the Bough Breaks" is a surprisingly solid thriller, with a well developed dark story and a good conclusion. Ally Walker has a great performance in the role of a professional with many specializations, but also with a trauma from her childhood. Tara Subkoff is also amazing with her double-role. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Assassinatos Macabros" ("Macabre Murders")

I think this movie had several good points, but also several flaws. The story is a bit too unrealistic, and I think Ally Walker overacted. Normal people in real life simply don't behave the way she does in the movie.I think it seems to be an interesting manuscript (although with flaws), but I found the work of the director and the actors and actresses rather poor. Not very realistic at all.