Roger Ebert, the influential American film critic known for his blunt and accessible reviews, was famously scathing about the 2001 thriller Domestic Disturbance, dismissing it as a "paid holiday" for director Harold Becker. The film, starring John Travolta, Vince Vaughn and Steve Buscemi, exemplified the kind of lacklustre, formulaic thrillers that populated early 2000s cinema, and Ebert's review highlighted how wasted potential and poor storytelling choices undermined it.

Ebert mocked the implausible plot, in which Travolta's character's ex-wife leaves him for a man played by Vaughn, only for Buscemi's character to turn up unexpectedly as the new husband's friend. He criticised a "spectacularly inappropriate speech at a crucial moment" that provoked unintended laughter, and noted that the film abandoned ambition in favour of "the low road." The film proved to be Becker's final feature, a disappointing end to a career that had earlier included The Onion Field and Sea of Love, and it grossed just $54.2 million against a $75 million budget.