THE QUIET generally got such poor audience responses when it hit the theatres in August 2006 that you'd think any reviewer who liked it had gone into Witness Protection. Seeing it on DVD did not improve it much. The pity of it is that it has, apart from the script, excellent production values and I keep thinking (and so must many others) that even a small amount of fine tuning of the storyline would have made this disaster into a winner.

The stage is set with lots of promise: The Deer household -- father Martin Donovan, mother Edie Falco (of The Sopranos), and teenage daughter (Nina) Elisha Cuthbert (of "24" and other successes) -- is expanded by the addition of teenage goddaughter (Dot) Camilla Belle (of When a Stranger Calls) who has been recently orphaned. Dot is no ordinary teenage girl; she's totally deaf, supposedly from an illness at age 7, and totally non-speaking although you'd really expect some speech from someone who wasn't deaf until age 7. She uses Sign Language but in the Deer household nobody knows that nor even tries - mom once in a while mentions they ought to go to night classes to learn Sign, but nobody even bothers enough to even get a chart of the Sign alphabet. Although both Nina and Dot attend a big highschool, apparently absolutely none of the kids knows, nor even attempts, Sign Language. Nina, at home and at school, treats Dot like dirt. The point, in case your mind wandered, is that Dot is completely and utterly isolated from any sort of social communication.

But almost immediately we are let in on a secret. Dot is not really deaf. Her father was deaf, which is why she is fluent in Signing, but she isn't - but she carries a burden of guilt over his death because she wasn't there to protect him. Her mother died when she was a baby and she was very much attached to her father, to the point where she kept his ashes with her. (Amazingly, although either Falco or Donovan was her godparent, neither of them nor Nine seems aware that Dot's father was deaf!) In the meantime she pretends to everyone that she is totally deaf and non-speaking, necessitating the school's use of an in-class interpreter (and emphasizing the ugly fact that there is no such interpreter for any sort of out-of-class socialization).

Carrying on this pretence within the Deer house she tumbles to someone else's secrets. Mom is a failed interior designer with a bad back and a Rush Limbaugh-sized addiction to prescription pills. Dad is stressed out and regularly seeks affection and sex ... from daughter Nina. Nina feels some pressure, but not worse, from this relationship and tries to spend time away from home with her BFF Michelle (newcomer Kathy Mixon, who is destined for good movies, I am sure), which Dad clearly resents. Nina lusts unrequitedly for highschool hunk Connor (Shawn Ashmore), who is a classmate of Dot's.

Both Nina and Connor, separately, stumble onto Dot's secret ability to hear. They each see her playing Beethoven on the piano (and it's really Camilla Belle doing the playing, and she's good at it). You'd think this would cause the little wheels in their heads to turn but evidently there's sand in the gears. Each of them takes to whispering their most personal, shameful, secrets to the back of Dot's head .... and yet later they both act shocked when she proves that she was listening to them. It is remarkable that Dot, who is no older than they, not only remains absolutely impassive no matter what is being said but also seems to be more mature in her thinking than either of them.

Now with this set-up you could probably conjure up a really interesting movie -- but it wouldn't be this movie. THE QUIET falls into the same category as those Japanese ghost movies that I've come to hate; after an intriguing build-up there's no logical resolution. I can't blame this on the performers, nor (I think) on Jamie Babbit (who directed episodes of The L Word, and the movies BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER and some other lesbian-themed stuff, which might explain a few bits of this flick), but on the writers. Very frustrating. Some of the blame must go to Elisha Cuthbert, who was an associate producer of this headache.

As an example of how this movie could have been improved, perhaps the fact that Dot is not deaf should have been kept secret from everyone including the audience until the very end; this would have necessitated only some minor re-editing of the existing film and adding or re-doing only one or two scenes.

Bits of this movie hint at a comedy, like MEAN GIRLS, and other bits hint at a drama, like AMERICAN BEAUTY, and maybe some others hint at a mystery but nothing pans out. You are almost certain to be disappointed in this movie whatever you were hoping for. This is a dark and disquieting movie and it doesn't seem to tie up loose ends.

Considering the obvious effort that everyone, except the writers, put into this movie, it almost pains me to discourage you from spending time on it. If teen angst appeals to you, try the two movies I mentioned in the preceding paragraph.




Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age