A Quiet Place, or:
Don’t Make a Sound or You Might Be Dead in the Morning, or
Whisper Softly, My Dear or It Will Be Your Last Whisper, or
I am Woman, Don’t Hear Me Roar, or
Do Go Quietly Into That Good Night, or
Have I Told You How Much I Love You Lately? No? That’s Coz We’d All Be Dead, or
Hush Now Baby, Don’t You Cry… or You’re Really Gonna Cry, or
Silent Running II, or
Silence is Golden
or… you get the point… is full of premise holes, like the idea that people can go about their lives without ever sneezing, snoring, or coughing. Or that an entire family walking around barefoot outside for miles and miles every day could ever happen.
A sort of cross between Alien and Don’t Breathe from a couple years back, A Quiet Place would have been a lot better had it not taken itself so seriously. Because once you take everything so seriously, so literally, your film peels open and is exposed to the logical errors. Had it taken the obvious path of a farce, e.g. Grindhouse movies, Fido, Teeth, Zombieland, etc., we’d be doing a lot better here.
But John Krasinski wanted to demonstrate that he can be a serious actor and filmmaker, so we don’t get to see that farce. Only his sober non-reality.
And despite all that lead up, I can say I was largely engaged. That it all works anyway… until the conclusion. The movie does a good job of conveying the feeling of getting into hotter and hotter water, and the atmospherics aren’t bad. Krasinski & Blunt provide solid performances. But, that conclusion. Without giving anything away, part of the conclusion I liked, and another part of it served to re-focus all the fundamental flaws of the picture.
Some movies require a suspension of disbelief. The successful ones allow that suspension of disbelief to happen. But when a movie is trying so hard to be hyper-realistic in all other ways, it defeats its purpose. The trailer is good, though. Maybe just watch the trailer.
5/10
Comparison Notes: besides the above-mentioned films, 10 Cloverfield Lane, It Comes at Night, Jurassic Park, I Spit on Your Grave, John Dies at the End, The Last House on the Left
P.S. The Purge is a film that on a dramatic level might be right up my alley. But the whole premise is so utterly nonsensical, I refuse to watch it or any of the various sequels. Point being: premise is important.