Deathly quiet, but brilliant...
Whisper it gently, but this gripping chiller about a family hiding from sound-hunting monsters is...
A Quiet Place C ert: 15 1hr 30mins
John Krasinski is a fine and intelligent American actor but until now it’s fair to say that he’s laboured somewhat in the shadow of his beautiful and talented British wife, Emily Blunt. Well, all that could be about to change because he’s just directed and co-written his first big film and, boy, is it good. Despite the low-key title, A Quiet Place is as impressive as it is terrifying.
Let’s get its modest shortcomings out of the way first. Yes, it’s a bit derivative, owing an obvious debt to Gareth Edwards’s Monsters from 2010 and a slightly less obvious one to John Hillcoat’s post-apocalypse drama, The Road (2009).
There’s also at least one plot hole so big that you’ll probably come out of the cinema saying: ‘Hang on a minute, why didn’t they try...?’
But none of that really matters because A Quiet Place is simply too good, too visceral a cinematic experience for such complaints to carry much importance. The acting – led by Krasinski himself and Blunt – is excellent, the pared-down storytelling really impressive, and, as for the brilliantly built and excruciatingly maintained levels of suspense and threat… well, all I can say is that Sigourney Weaver and her tension-ratcheting alien would feel thoroughly at home here. And there’s no higher compliment than that.
Working from – and contributing to – a story and screenplay written by Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, the economy of Krasinski’s story-telling style is evident right from the start. ‘Day 89,’ says the caption, and we’re off, trying to work out why the tumbleweeds are already blowing through a seemingly deserted American town and why the barefoot family raiding a supermarket for supplies are so determined to keep quiet at all costs. And then, as the tech-savvy Lee (Krasinski) and the possibly medically qualified Evelyn (Blunt) make their weary way back to their farm, we find out. There’s something nasty lurking in the surrounding forest, something alien, fast and deadly. And they hunt by sound. Hence the vital, life-preserving need for absolute silence. But with three children, keeping silent is never going to be straightforward… In space, famously, no one could hear you scream; here you simply can’t afford to.
Initially, I thought making one of the children deaf was rather over-egging things. But as a device, even a contrived one, it works well. For while Regan – a headstrong young teenager played here by Millicent Simmonds, who, by one of those strange film-world coincidences, is also the star of another of the week’s big releases, Wonderstruck – is completely at home in this new silent world, she’s also detached from its dangers.
She has to be able to see some-
thing to recognise the threat, which, of course, means the real dangers are always lurking exactly where we don’t want them to be – just out of sight.
But it’s Blunt who does the really heavy-lifting here, albeit playing a role almost as old as cinema itself: the beautiful woman in terrible danger. However, she does so extremely well, helped by a pregnancy (how do you give birth in silence?), a rusty nail (no-ooo!) and a truly wonderful moment when she and her husband listen to a lovely bit of Neil Young through a shared set of headphones. This may be the first major film Krasinski (two smaller ones have never been released in these parts) has directed but, as long as he can mix things up as beautifully and movingly as this, it certainly won’t be his last.
It’s also clearly been influenced by Alien – initially we don’t see a lot of the monsters but when we do, let’s just say they’re somewhat familiar – and all that extra-terrestrial life rushing through maize fields reminded me of M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs too. All of which may make
A Quiet Place a genre film – a film that follows a familiar path – but that doesn’t stop it from being an extremely well-conceived and well-executed one that is absolutely nerve-shreddingly exhausting to watch.
You’re definitely not going to forget it in a hurry.
‘Well conceived and well executed, Krasinski’s film is nerve-shreddingly exhausting to watch’