The Silence

Based on the concept I was rather surprised that Netflix would venture into material so similiar to one of their other films (A Quiet Place) and so shockingly fast. I can however say this is a different movie altogether, though not really in good way.

Early on I was gripped, fantastically made and looking film where Tucci is on the best form I've seen him since The Lovely Bones (2009). This I thought was going to be something really special, but alas the quality dipped pretty hardcore in the last act.

It tells the story of small winged creatures that begin to besiege the world in a near apocalyptic event. They respond only to sound so the trick is silence (See where the Quiet Place comparison comes in?). The film follows a family surviving in this world, led by father Tucci and daughter played by Kiernan "Sabrina" Shipka.

The cast deliver, the sfx are passable and the whole thing is well constructed but religion takes the stage and ruins the film. Despite being a near theocratic nation I'm still amazed how critical Hollywood usually is over religion and The Silence is no different. It takes a hyper realistic angle here with the religious's interpretation of the incident and it's positively chilling because it's so very believable.

I wish they hadn't gone down that route, though realistic it made for uncomfortable viewing and led the movie to a satisfying yet sudden and rather incomplete finale.

The Silence should/could have been an outstanding film but instead came out as a real disappointment.

The Good:

Tucci is on top form

Some solid ideas

The Bad:

Certain flaws in logic and consistency

Goes in an uncomfortable direction

After a spell goes awry, Aunt Zelda & Sabrina are forced to reenact A Quiet Place with an 80s B movie creature feature budget, comparatively speaking.

I enjoyed the acting (especially Stanley Tucci and Miranda Otto but the whole cast is worthy of interest), the photography, the general atmosphere, but I moderately appreciated the last third of the movie. Although the post-apocalyptic atmosphere consecutively to the invasion of huge bats as blind as voracious is rather successful, the atmosphere changes after the meeting with the reverend. This is definitely a key milestone: the movie becomes then surrealistic and almost laughable. This was naively developed: the group formed around the reverend depreciates the film by polluting it.

My rating before the meeting with the reverend: 6 of 10. And after: 4/5 of 10. Frustrating!

A lot of people are saying this is a rip off of A Quiet Place... that is totally incorrect actually. If anything A Quiet Place and Birdbox ripped off the premise from the 2015 book The Silence by Tim Lebbon. Do some research people, there have been numerous articles that state as much.

As far as the movie... a middle of the road decent time killer, it held my interest. It could have been much more in the right hands. I thought the acting was on par with the material the actors had to work with. CGI was lax and the situations the family found themselves in could have been orchestrated to be much more complex and dramatized. This is why A Quiet Place excelled.

People try entirely too hard to figure out what's wrong with a movie rather than just enjoy it. Don't go into every movie expecting it to be the best movie ever and perhaps you won't be so disappointed. Few movies deserve a 1 or 2 rating, just as few as deserve a 9 or 10.

Overall this is a decent enough time killer. It's got a good cast, and some wonderful music and scenes. The problem is the story as a whole.

The "monsters" made little sense in terms of the threat the movie wanted to make them portray. Not much thought was put into them other than "we need a monster". While they might be decent as a "Pitch Black" style swarm monster on a small scale, they do not work for what the movie intended. There's just so many things wrong with them.

Add to that the incredibly bad ending, that was clearly a rush job and honestly added nothing to the movie. It was clearly a case of the writers trying to sound wise and simply failing horribly.

This is a movie you can waste a bored afternoon watching, but there's far better ones out there.