A Quiet Place
Directed by John Krasinski
Rated PG
Solid direction, good performances, a unique concept, and mostly clever filmmaking make A Quiet Place a rush of cold air on a hot summer night: refreshing, invigorating, but also momentary and at times baffling. Krasisnki is a revelation as a total filmmaker.
In the film, Earth has been invaded and decimated by monsters that hunt things that make any sound. The Abbot family is one of the few that has struggled to survive each day without making much sound. Lee (John Krasinski) has made a home in a rural farm where the pregnant Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and their children (played bt Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe) can quietly live in peace. That is, until Murphy’s Law happens.
Photos courtesy if United International Pictures
Of the few lines spoken in the film, one line stands out as being the crux of the story: “If we can’t protect them, what are we?”
Indeed, A Quiet Place is Krasisnki’s ruminations as a parent, done at the time he and wife Blunt are carrying their second child. Krasnski communicates this rumination in the film clearly (apart from the overt spoken line) as Lee is depicted as literally doing everything he can to keep his family alive. We’re not sure what Lee’s background is, but he’s managed to plan out a system for alarms, radio communication, farming, fishing, a panic room and an oxygen tank for the yet-to-be-born baby – all in the event of an attack.
Lee’s struggles are both physical and emotional – that he has to ensure the safety and security of his family while struggling to manage a pregnant wife, a strongly-opinionated teen daughter and a sickly adolescent son.
Simmonds stands out with a fierce portrayal of Regan, who, apart from a natural physical inability to hear, is just dying to hear words of comfort and affection from her father. Simmonds is so effective that her Regan’s stubbornness becomes terribly annoying at times.
Such is the strength of this narrative, that apart from proposing an uncommon apocalyptic scenario that the proceedings are anchored on the Abbots’ family dynamics. However I can’t say so much about Blunt’s Evelyn as the loving mother and pregnant wife. Her character isn’t threshed out well, but Blunt makes most of her scenes effective anyway, terrorized pregnant parent and all.
For a film about silences, there are a few quiet moments that I particularly enjoyed. Lighting up torches in the dark to check on the other survivors around the titular quiet place. The silent dinner where an “amen” can’t be even uttered after saying grace, and silverware are absent. But these “everyday” scenes in the farm are too few, as the rest of the film uses the silences as build-up to the suspense.
Which brings me to a point that I can’t seem to wrap my head around. That the Abbots’ “quiet place” of a farm is surrounded by things that make noise. I accept that it is post-apocalyptic – that the Abbots may not have had the leisure of looking for a more “sound-proof” abode, that there are some things that people cannot let go of just to stay sane. Sakuma’s tin can of candy drops in Graveyard for Fireflies (RIP Isao Takahata.) Newt’s ragdoll (Aliens.) Sure.
That the irony of the film is, for all their reliance on silence to survive, Lee’s tinkering with sound would prove instrumental to the family’s survival. I get that.
What I can’t get are the material items – the oil lamps and Regan’s trinkets and the gazillion thingamabobs on shelves that are just waiting to drop and make noise. If they were Sakuma’s drops or Newt’s ragdoll, I won’t be pointing out this part. But I find the production’s design of the Abbots’ daily survival (painting the creaking parts of the wooden floor) inconsistent with having way too many things around. I’m talking shelves and shelves of things. But maybe there were just too few everyday scenes to show how these characters are human that would make my rant moot. I’ll watch (or re-read) The Road again,
In a post apocalyptic world where silence is key to survival, shouldn’t sound engineers have figured out a way to do things to combat the aliens? Yes I’m overthinking it again. Because for all its craftsmanship, AQP is a great thriller that makes us more conscious of the sounds we make – and not much underneath that. The parental part, Krasinski gets down pat, no question.
If anything, the actors may have had a field day exploring the many ways of communicating without words, as the performances are like textbook acting exercises that serve to narrate the story. Adding Krasinski’s uncomplicated setups, the film is a great example of “show, don’t tell” – a skill that many filmmakers have forgotten for a medium that is mostly visual.
Overall we get a pretty solid horror movie that reminds me of Shyamalan craftiness and understanding of the build-up. It’s a rather satisfying watch, given the plot holes that kept gnawing at me until the end. And still a satisfying watch, despite the thematically inconsistent last ten minutes. I mean, the film could not completely keep silent. At the end of the day, it’s a creature feature for the family. The silo scene is straight out of Jurassic Park, while the cornrow scenes remind me of Signs.
The best part of watching A Quiet Place is realizing that the theater has gone hushed for most of the experience (apart from the occasional shrieks of course.) And that is such a rarity these days.
acid reflects 
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