The Sound of Violet

Haven't see such a well made movie for a long time!!! Good story, relatable, well directed, well made. After watching it, I felt hopeful for the society and for American movie industry. Highly highly recommended!

Refreshing new faces creating some excellent craftsplay here. A prostitute, an autistic kid, concerned brother and grandmother, and of course the trafficker. Unfortunately they stereotyped with the black badass pimp, with no other diversity in sight, and went a bit longer than necessary, but beautiful! Seattle shots and excellent acting. Some laugh out loud moments, some tears, surprisingly no! Profanity or overt sexuality. Saw lots of tears in the audience, poignant, and surprisingly believable. Well done, shout out to local Seattleite Kaelon Christopher!

Autistic young man Shawn (Jason Trevino) is an engineer for a dating app company living with his grandmother (Jan D'Arcy) and determined to find a woman to be his wife before his grandmother passes, but hasn't had much luck in dating as his idiosyncrasies tend to scare off his dates. Eventually Shawn does find a woman willing to spend more time with him named Violet (Cora Cleary) whom he thinks is an actress when in reality she is a prostitute who is the victim of exploitation and abuse at the hands of her pimp Anton (Michael E. Bell). Over time however Violet finds charm in Shawn beneath his idiosyncrasies.

The Sound of Violet is a romantic dramedy written and directed by Allen Wolf and based off Wolf's novel Hooked. According to Wolf's official website for the film, the story was inspired by his own experiences of ups and downs in the dating world which he then incorporated with exploration of neurodivergent individuals and victims of human trafficking after originally writing the character as an archetype previously seen in other films such as Milk Money and Pretty Woman. I'm sure The Sound of Violet has its heart in the right place, but in execution the final film is a massive mess that feels like someone stapled a Pure Flix rom-com to material from Dateline or 48 Hours.

In terms of the setup for this movie, Shawn isn't all that well written as someone on the autistic spectrum. I can understand the character misreading social cues and situations, but the fact that Shawn doesn't seem to know or understand what a prostitute is doesn't feel like a case of him misreading the situation, it feels like a case of Shawn being written as an idiot for the plot to work. And given that Shawn works for a dating app company you'd think he'd be at least a little aware of the concept as dating apps and other social media have standards and mods addressing that sort of thing so there's no good excuse why Shawn shouldn't know these things even if you want to say it's maybe because of his grandmother sheltering him. I will at least say that Cora Cleary does have some charm as Violet despite the baggage of the role and the rather judgmental attitude the movie takes about her. But when the movie attempts to dive into the ugliness of sexual exploitation and human trafficking it massively clashes with the bubbly airheaded tone of something that feels like it should be playing in the background of your grandmother's house.

I really didn't like this movie and with its awkward subject matter, stilted dialogue, and massive tonal clashes this is probably slightly worse than Milk Money because at least for as stupid as that was it was competently made.

I learned a lesson again today when I saw this movie rated 7.9 on IMDb. So, decided to dig it out to watch it.

Now, first I must say that I don't normally review a movie that I haven't watched all the way thorugh. But, this time, I just couldn't do the full 107 minutes. What I did manage was about 40 minutes of one of the dumbest movies I think i've ever seen.

The plot of the movie is in the IMDb short summary so I don't think I'm contravening IMDb policy on spoilers when I say it's just unimaginable that most of the characters in this silliness appeared to be oblivious to the obvious fact that Violet is a prostitute. They therefore failed to alert the autistic main character, Shawn, to that simple fact. Perhaps he would still have been interested in her had he known what trade she was in, perhaps not. That knowledge might have made for a much shorter and possibly a lot better movie.

I see now that the rating of 7.9 was based on a total of.94 ratings. But, importantly, ony eight people before me bothered to write a review.

I must try to avoid paying to watch a movie simply on the basis of a good over all rating here on IMDb. A rating of 7.9 probably indicates that a movie is great, or at least well worth watching. But, regrettably, as here, not always. This one was rubbish.

JMV.

I found myself really drawn into this story. It is not the typical characters we see onscreen but they are so human, I couldn't help but find myself rooting for the unconventional love story. I even found empathy for Ruth and Colin, who, I had initially been so upset with. Their love of Shawn can be a bit protective and stifling while simultaneously shining such harsh and unfair light on those around him. They feel they are doing what's best but they just can't see what this is really costing all of them. The story takes the viewer on quite a ride and is unlike anything I can recall seeing. It is rich in character development and story telling, alike. I attribute this to Allen Wolf and his care for these characters. I could see his heart and passion for this story really shine through. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it refreshing and unlike anything I can remember seeing. A really beautiful, heartfelt film with some talented young actors.