The Quiet is not that easy to detect as standart-questioning movie. However, just one look at the poster reveals that yes, it passes the test easily. Despite the main character, Dot (Camilla Belle), not speaking most of the time.
Dot who everyone beliefs to be deaf and dumb goes to live with her godparents and their daughter Nina after her father dies. The atmosphere gets stranger and weirder - helped by the camera and lighting - as she discovers that Nina and her father share an incestuous sexual relationship that Nina herself is torn about, stating that she loves her father but hates him, too, planning to kill him. At the same time Dot and a popular guy at her High School fall in love, making her feel bad about pretending to not be able to speak or understand him.
"Many reviewers complained that it was sleazy, exploitative, and difficult to watch, and that it was too serious to be satire, yet too camp to be taken seriously" - This is very much why I had problems with this movie. While it is in no way a bad movie, it seems to be unsure about what it wants to be. It is entertaining and intriguing but also just plain weird, in a good as well as in a bad sense.
Elisha Cuthbert (before this role rather known for her parts as the plain blonde in "The Girl Next Door" or, even more tellingly, along-side Paris Hilton in the Horror remake of "House of Wax") plays the part of very messed up Nina in a way that changes between pitiful crazy abused daughter, hateful arrogant and calculative High School bitch and "appealing slut" for anyone looking out for incest porn, while Camilla Belle makes Dot seems very cold and more sure about everything she does then it would make sense in regards to her actions.
All the other actors seem very convincing, especially Martin Donovan as Paul, Nina's father, who - despite not having that many lines in this movie - gets the trouble inside his head between wanting to be a good person and his illness across well. However, exactly this, him coming across like a wholesome person with feelings who needs help, while his daughter at times seems like the one in charge in their sexual relationship, makes you wonder what exactly the director is trying to say here, if anything.
Edie Falco as the mother of Nina and wife of Paul, does a great job at portraying the mother who tries with all her might not to see what is going on, just to keep up the picture of a working family. Despite all this I couldn't help but think "But she's Carmela Soprano! Where is Tony!?" at times...
Also, there is this Beethoven theme throughout the whole film that seems somehow tragically random and misplaced.
The Quiet is definitely not your usual High School drama/family movie/thriller, but that doesn't make it automatically good. There's a lot of potential in almost every role and every direction the film is trying to take, but no consensus means it ends up in a very mushy emotional mess. If anything - it does entertain.
Verdict: Pass & Undecided
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