A Quiet Place Demands To Be Seen And Heard

In Earth’s near future, the world has been invaded by mysterious killer monsters that have turned the planet into a post-apocalyptic landscape largely denuded of human life. That’s the hook of what seems like half the movies and TV shows that make it onto our screens these days. Once the premise is set, the cast is slowly winnowed down to its main one or two characters who somehow either bravely escape or solve the problem and save the world at the end. Films in this vein generally revolve around plot. It’s all about surviving the thing trying to kill them and if they’re particularly ambitious, killing it first, whatever “it” happens to be. But in John Krasinski’s (The Office, 13 Hours) sophomore directorial and writing outing, the premise is beasts that have destroyed human civilization by hunting with sound, and the only way to survive is to stay quiet. That’s a somewhat novel take on the genre, but the twist is that this is a story of a family. More specifically; it’s the story of parents trying to keep their children safe. Those two things combined with some heroic levels of storytelling restraint make for a stand out film unlike anything I’ve seen in years.

Horror is a broad genre, and while I normally avoid mindless slasher flicks, I’m drawn to thoughtful suspense thrillers, and this is the category in which I would place A Quiet Place. Let’s get a couple things out of the way. Producing what is essentially a silent movie is an incredibly difficult, bold choice. Face acting is very, very difficult to do well, and even harder to drive emotion in an entire movie where there’s no tone of voice. Krasinski’s choice to do so much of the camera work close in is something Tom Hooper could have learned from when he mistakenly over relied on the same technique for Les Miserables. In that film, Hooper’s overuse of the close up to really sell the idea that his characters were singing only distracted from what was going on. Krasinski, on the other hand, knows that in a film where there is no tone of voice to sell emotion, face acting is the only thing the viewer really has to go on.

I’ve always liked Krasinski as a comedic actor, and I’ve always thought he had a very expressive face, but this film drove home just how naturally good an actor he is. Conveying emotion in a face would seem like Acting 101, but it’s actually very difficult without being paired with words and tone of voice, in part because dialogue and voice give you more senses to prime you for how you’re supposed to be experiencing a scene. But when your face and body language alone are doing all that work, it’s a much bigger lift. Krasinski exudes emotion on screen so palpably I got a little misty in a couple scenes just watching him be sad. Emily Blunt is also very effective at this, and the kids as well did a wonderful job with a range of emotions. The choice (which seems obvious, but this is Hollywood after all) to use a young deaf actress to play his daughter was excellent, as the young Millicent Simmonds (Wonderstruck) is fantastic.

There are only a few scenes with significant dialogue, but the most striking has to be the first, where Krasinski takes his onscreen son–a wonderfully expressive Noah Jupe–to a waterfall, which is loud enough to drown out their voices and they can talk freely. I’ve never felt so uncomfortable with talking in my life. Hearing them talk after becoming so accustomed to silence was jarring, and it felt so loud when in reality the volume was normal. I appreciated that moment because it locked in just how effective and powerful the movie’s silence is.

What appealed most to Krasinski about the script wasn’t the sci-fi/horror aspect; it was the story of a family trying to survive, especially in the wake of tragedy. In that sense, it follows a grand tradition of films that cloak a relatively simple story in the guise of science fiction, fantasy, disaster, or whatever genre gives the film its skin, but the meat and bones of these films are always much more human-focused.

This is one of the best suspense thrillers I’ve seen in years, really one of the best films I’ve seen in years. It literally had me on the edge of my seat with my hands over my face for the entire movie. It feels fresh and original, and the acting is top notch. In a film landscape so littered with high budget comic book films, a flood of remakes, book adaptations, sequels that go on ad infinitum, and a factory churn of cloned comedies, A Quiet Place deserves to be heard, while saying very little at all.