A Quiet Place (2018) - movie review

A Quiet Place (2018) – 3.5/5

Cast : John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe

Direction : John Krasinski

Review by Zulfiqar

            In this highly advanced technical cinemeatic world and, shuffling and ever-evolving screenplay times, it is quite imperative that we deserve a good monster-alien flick. I couldn’t recall anything better in that genre after Signs. ‘A quiet Place’ strongly comes close to that mark in the first half to slide away in the second. Nevertheless, it has many intensely suspenseful moments, the likes of which I have felt in a theatre recently while watching ‘Don’t Breathe’.

            Krasinski, who acted and directed this Shyamalanesque movie with its own world of apocalypse, builds up the tone till the midway. ‘A Quiet Place’ begins with a prologue of an apocalyptic world where a blind alien beast, with its highly sensitive sense of hearing as its main weapon, has successfully plagued the world. The human inhabitation is dwindled and people are scattered meagerly over the globe. A small family with its house in the country is befallen with a huge tragedy, which constrains the relationship dynamics between the parent and the deaf-mute daughter. The family of four, parents and kids (elder mute daughter and younger brother) are later depicted continuing their life in acute silence, as the merest of decibel could summon the farthest beast in a matter of seconds. The beast is all ears and limbs, which is slowly revealed, till in the final scenes, we clearly see its head and the whole body.

            The story is intrigued as the mother (Emily Blunt) is expecting. Father (real life husband of Emily Blunt- John Krasinski) is layering all the paths surrounding the house with sand to make the foot padding while walking noiseless. The kids adapt to live a silent life, barely making a creak. But we know the mischief is afoot. Father is researching with cochlear implants for his deaf daughter. We are given a shady glimpse of the beast lurking around the house, just like the alien of Signs. We all know where the story is going. What would happen when the newborn arrives, who won’t understand that silence is survival.

            This is where Krasinski bungles up. His rules of the equation as to how much decibels the aliens can hear to attack them is very vague. They could hear a creak a mile away, but could conveniently miss a baby’s croak. The baby manages to keep silent till it is safely ensconced in a sound-proof basket. And what about the aliens’ movements? How could they move around and discern that they aren’t running into something in their path. Blind bats use sonar to aurally see. What about the gigantic insects here? They should need the same technique to make shape of the objects in their path. And if they do, they could make out humans. Krasinski skips these essentials. We aren’t given a mind to the science of their blind vision. It affects a certain level of plausibility.

            Krasinski and his writing team (Scott Beck and Bryan Woods) make an impactful start as they devise the geography of the house and the things inside. the fields around and the tower-mill of corn, with a few scattered people’s houses here and there, gives an eerie quality to the movie. Long stretches of deserted topography adds to the tone of the movie. Marco Beltrami provides the macabre background score, while the sound department adds to the thrills.

But when the boiling down comes at the end, Krasinski loses hold. It falls prey to the mundane tropes of sentiment and a little contrived sacrifice. The climactic solution to the beast-problem is the same one as in ‘Mars Attacks’. The kids, however, do the best in the universal Hollywood standard, which I don’t even find strange these days. Millicent Simmonds, also deaf in her real life, gives a natural performance as a guilty young teenager.

However, the genuine thrills in the movie could easily repay you handsomely for your ticket. It is definitely your buck’s worth, if you suspend your fastidious thinking for a while. But then of course this is genuine escapist fun.