The Quiet (2006)

Better Late Then Never

The first must-see film of the year.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I was happy to have the opportunity to view three films based on vc Andrews omnibus flowers in the attic. this film is not a thrill ride and is preety depressing... a film an actress probably really doesn't want to do, and whoever had had the idea must be really freaky with the adoptive twin and incestual issues as well as a mute happening simultaneously, that's was a wild find.... in rare movie form for those interested in what women are thinking and doing while not being US LOVE phone operators for their fathers friends, drug dealers and whichever imaginary masturbatory polygamyideal they have conquered within their heads

Wow this movie is both depressing and pathetic. Nothing makes sense or seems to fit. I'm also not sure I believe the characters. They feel weird, unlikable and completely unrealistic. In reality I don't feel that the cast of characters would ever find themselves in this situation. Everybody is drowning in self-pity and hatred. All the actors are talented though but they can only do so much with the material they are given.I understand where the writers were going with this film but I think they took it too far. There is not enough of an actual storyline to keep you interested instead they tried to fill the entire movie with every horrible thing that could ever happen to a person. I don't completely hate this movie but it just feels like overkill. On another note the ending was way better than the entire rest of the movie.

Recap: Having lost both her parents, Dot moves in with her godfather and his family. They live in the suburbs and everything seems to be perfect. Father Paul is a successful architect, mother Olivia an interior decorator, and daughter Nina, who is of the same age as Dot, is a popular cheerleader at school. Dot however, is not popular, she is both deaf and mute, and has no support from Nina at the new school. But behind every façade there are secrets, some worse than others, and what would you do if somebody learned yours? Or you learned someone else's?Comments: A psychological thriller that has it's real strength in its air and emotions. It plays very strongly on feelings and does it very well. There is a very uncomfortable, disturbing feel about the story, it is in the essence of the movie. And that feeling, that it very aptly conveys, is the real strength of the movie. That feeling is what builds suspense, and it manages to build a good amount of suspense. It kept interest and put the story, and hence me as viewer, on its edge.It is good that the movie is strong in its emotions, because the story is a bit predictable. It is fairly easy to reveal both Dot's and Nina's secrets. So the suspense and thrill in this movie is in the psychological approach.Both Camilla Belle and Elisha Cuthbert acts very well in their different roles. As the movie builds on emotion, their performance is crucial for the movie. Fortunately they succeed. Especially Camilla impresses me, though I'm not really surprised since I thought she has performed very well in other movies.From some reviews I have gathered that this is almost a movie you either love or hate. I'm not sure I can say I really love it, but I thought it was very good and enjoyed it much.7/10

Jamie Babbit's "The Quiet," dealing with the difficult subject of sexual abuse, is an ambitious film that shot for the stars and ended up tumbling down a cliff. The main downfall of this film is that the talents of the actors are not commensurate to the demands made upon them by their challenging roles. The character of the abused teenager Nina, for example, is certainly interesting, but Elisha Cuthbert cannot play this character effectively. Cuthbert had to portray a tortured soul struggling not to explode in a rage. But Cuthbert couldn't do it. She appears more like a sulking and obnoxious teenager experiencing puberty rather than a girl who is unusually troubled and depressed. And because we cannot imagine Cuthbert's Nina as troubled and depressed, it becomes more difficult to understand why she would explode in a rage. In addition to that dilemma, the angry scenes come across as something from a cheap theatre play with third-rate actors. Instead of convincing the audience that she was angry, sadistic, and potentially violent, Cuthbert came across as an actor playing a role. In other words, a film's success depends on its ability to deceive the audience into believing that the people on screen are real. But in "The Quiet," we were not seeing Nina, but rather Elisha Cuthbert pretending to be Nina -- and that's why this film does not work.But that was not the only problem with this film. The editing was poorly done. There are scenes in "The Quiet" that should not be there because they distract from the central premise (which is the story of the sexually abused Nina). I am referring to the sex scene involving Dot (Camilla Belle) and one of the boys in school and another scene where Dot and the same boy are at a cafeteria engaging in dumbed down conversation. Then there are the scenes with Camilla Belle playing the piano which seem to lack any purpose. I like classical music, but how does Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata relate in any way to the subject of this film. Perhaps Babbit felt that if the classically trained Camilla played Beethoven, then somehow that would save the film. She was wrong. Finally there are the boring scenes with Nina as the cheerleader on the basketball court or in a cinema looking back at Dot.Finally there is the problem of the script. Why for instance was it necessary for Elisha Cuthbert's Nina to dress in a sexy cheerleader's outfit in front of her sexually abusive father. For a film dealing with sexual abuse, scenes displaying Cuthbert's sex appeal come across as shamelessly exploitative and by implication even supportive of incest and sexual abuse (even if that was not the intention). The nude scenes with Eddie Falco, who plays Nina's mother (she did so much better in the Sopranos), are among the most uncomfortable that I have seen. Then there is Camilla Belle's performance as Dot, the supposedly deaf and dumb girl who moved into Nina's house. We know -- in fact we are told -- that we must to feel very sorry for Dot, because she lost her father in a car accident. But I did not buy into that sentimental nonsense, because the car accident and the disability are cheap ploys to generate sympathy for a character that does not move us in any way. Daniel Day Lewis' Christie Brown character in "My Left Foot" moved us because his feelings and frustrations seemed real. But Camilla Dot's Belle is dull, uninspired and depressing to watch. There is no reason to care about what she says as evidenced by the fact that her observations are forgettable. This too is a big problem for this film because Camilla Belle narrates for this entire movie. But she has nothing important or interesting say throughout; her performance is dreary and indifferent.The only thing I can credit this movie for is director Jamie Babbit had the guts to go all the way with this ambitious project when more frail souls (influenced largely by monetary concerns) would have given up or tried to find some way to cut their losses. "The Quiet" was Babbit's great gamble and it failed. Belle and Cuthbert were poorly chosen for their roles. The plot was flawed. The cinematography, gloomy. The music, all wrong. "The Quiet" is a failure, but it is also an ambitious failure because Babbit cared enough about this film to try as hard as she could to make it work even when it was clear that it could not work.