A Quiet Place is a relatively low budget film (20 million dollars) which came out in 2018. Directed by John Krasinski, it starred Emily Blunt as the protagonist together with Krasinski himself, who’s also her husband in real life. I’m probably the last person on Earth who saw this movie, as it was a worldwide hit with well over 300 million dollars gained at the box office. I had also managed to shield myself from spoilers so I started watching my recently purchased DVD expecting a horror flick and found myself with a thriller instead. Let’s talk about it!
Apparently, there are very few humans left in the world of A quiet place. We follow Evelyn and Lee Abbott (respectively, Emily Blunt and John Krasinski) who try to survive together with their two sons Regan and Marcus (Millicent Simmons and Noah Jupe) making as little noise as possible. Why? Well, it seems that the planet has been invaded by ferocious creatures which are highly sensitive to noises: at the slightest sound, it’s very likely that in a few seconds one of these creatures will arrive at crazy speed to reduce you to shreds and / or devour you. Regan is deaf (the actress who plays the character is deaf in real life), which means that everyone in the family knows the sign language. That’s convenient when you have to avoid making noise at all costs!
Some time has passed since the invasion began and our protagonists know how to behave very well: they have their own alert code (using the color of the lights of the farm where they live), they try to communicate with other possible survivors with a radio… and they are still dealing with the loss of the small Beau for whom Regan feels responsible (and probably also her parents consider her as such, at least partly). But… Evelyn is pregnant! It’s not easy to give birth without making any noise, and above all it’s not easy for a newborn baby not to cry out loud every few minutes! And even if everything seems to be ready for the big moment, obviously things rapidly go awry…
And here I stop with the plot, for the three or four of you out there who haven’t seen the movie yet! Let me tell you: I liked it a lot and for an hour and a half I was kept on the edge of my seat hoping for our heroes to save themselves somehow. The film is very tense, the characters are well written and well interpreted, the story… the story works, even if, as usual in these cases, we could speak of suspension of disbelief. That is: the only thing I can tell you is that the story worked for me. While watching the film, I never asked myself why the characters made certain choices and the overall plot made sense to me. But at the same time I perfectly understand those who identified the numerous flaws in the logic of the script and therefore didn’t enjoy the film.
For example, how and with which ultra-silent method is electricity generated? Isn’t it stupid to live in a place without noise when it would be easy enough to to move near the waterfall and live in a much less dangerous way? And what about the fast and armored monsters (at least according to the family’s notes) which turn out to be extremely vulnerable to a not-even-too sophisticated firearm (ok, I guess that you could tell me that in that particular moment the monster was weakened by the acoustic whistles of Regan’s device…)?
Suffice it to say that we could talk about it but it wouldn’t take us anywhere. If during the vision of the movie you don’t see these things as a problem, the film works great. The script develops very well the theme of how to cope with a loss; the young actors are very good, something which should never taken for granted; it’s easy to feel for the characters; the soundtrack is very atmospheric; Blunt and Krasinski have a great chemistry on screen (and, I assume, off screen too)… in short, for me it’s a good movie, certainly worth watching. But I’m the first to admit that it’s not a perfect film nor is it free from criticism! Ciao!
External links:
- The movie trailer on Youtube
- The movie page on Internet Movie DataBase
- Movie review on Jason’s movie blog
- Movie review on Jon Spencer’s reviews
- Movie review on The uumlaut
- Movie review on Fantasy, fiction and film
- The honest trailer by Screen Junkies on Youtube
vengonofuoridallefottutepareti.wordpress.com 
Great review! I’m glad you managed to enjoy this one despite its flaws. It’s definitely best enjoyed when you try not to overthink it 🙂
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Thank you! :–)
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Avrà qualche difettuccio ma è un film diretto bene con dei bellissimi momenti sia per quanto riguarda i momenti di tensione che per i momenti famigliari. Uno degli horror migliori del 2018.
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Sono assolutamente d’accordo, proprio bello e per me insieme a roba horror recente come It follows, Don’t breathe e The babadook!
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The babadook è uno dei miei horror preferiti di questo periodo insieme a It Follows, Train to Busan, The VVitch, Invitation e Hereditary. Ultimamente l’horror è tornato davvero alla grande!
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Verissimo, ed infatti hai nominato dei grandissimi film tutti usciti recentemente!
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