THE QUIET (2006) ** Elisha Cuthbert, Camilla Belle, Edie Falco, Martin Donovan, Shawn Ashmore, Katy Mixon. (Dir: Jamie Babbit)
A would-be "Wild Things" for the Next Generation
In 1998 a pot boiling neo-noir B -movie trash/guilty pleasure, "Wild Things", came out of left field making some waves at the box office and critics were awakened from their complacent naps thanks to some hanky panky between babes Denise Richards and Neve Campbell and an insidious threesome with Matt Dillon incorporating sordid sex with conspiracy for murder and other heinous acts. Since then there have been a few failed attempts to capitalize on its "eww" factor and raise interest in taboos. This latest offering is a fluke just as well.
Dot (Belle), is a pretty teenager who is deaf and mute and has come recently into the home of family friends the Deers, after her father has been killed in a freak accident (her mother is referred to as having died years previously). The Deers, Olivia and Paul (Falco and Donovan, respectively) are just getting their bearings in their newly refurbished home which is still in the stages of redesign. Their only daughter, Nina (Cuthbert), is a teenager the same age as Dot and despite their history of being childhood friends have fractured their tentative relationship do in no small part to Nina treating Dot with course abruptness whenever she is with her catty cheerleader girlfriend Michelle (Mixon). But Dot can see through her friend and can tell she is putting on a mask about her demeanor even though Dot herself is stand-offish at school and would rather hide behind her long bangs and over-sized, shapeless clothing.
Nina is harboring a horrible secret and when Dot discovers it by chance she is torn about revealing her own secret in lieu of their tenacious friendship: Nina is having an incestuous relationship with her father and Dot can really talk and hear.
What follows is a somewhat sordid metaphorical foray into the darker aspects of human nature but it is handled with ham-fisted dialogue by screenwriters Abdi Nazemian and Micah Schraft with plodding direction by Jamie Babbit that by the third and climactic act is all but underscored with a Sharpie marker and is nothing but a junky resolve to what could've been an interesting character study for either of the young, talented actresses to sink their teeth into. Falco and Donovan seem to be wasted in the process with Falco's character zombie'd on sleeping pills and other pharmaceuticals while Donovan's father figure has shades of sympathy until the second half where he becomes a ridiculous monster. Although busty newcomer Mixon makes for a nice bitch her character too becomes a parody of what a nasty little girl has blossomed into and Ashmore provides a somewhat sympathetic nice guy, again until the clumsy ending.
The sex scenes are somewhat discreet which is probably a good thing considering incest at the forefront and not unlike its seamy predecessor "Wild Things", baring only in resemblance as an overheated pot that needs to be simmered.
A would-be "Wild Things" for the Next Generation
In 1998 a pot boiling neo-noir B -movie trash/guilty pleasure, "Wild Things", came out of left field making some waves at the box office and critics were awakened from their complacent naps thanks to some hanky panky between babes Denise Richards and Neve Campbell and an insidious threesome with Matt Dillon incorporating sordid sex with conspiracy for murder and other heinous acts. Since then there have been a few failed attempts to capitalize on its "eww" factor and raise interest in taboos. This latest offering is a fluke just as well.
Dot (Belle), is a pretty teenager who is deaf and mute and has come recently into the home of family friends the Deers, after her father has been killed in a freak accident (her mother is referred to as having died years previously). The Deers, Olivia and Paul (Falco and Donovan, respectively) are just getting their bearings in their newly refurbished home which is still in the stages of redesign. Their only daughter, Nina (Cuthbert), is a teenager the same age as Dot and despite their history of being childhood friends have fractured their tentative relationship do in no small part to Nina treating Dot with course abruptness whenever she is with her catty cheerleader girlfriend Michelle (Mixon). But Dot can see through her friend and can tell she is putting on a mask about her demeanor even though Dot herself is stand-offish at school and would rather hide behind her long bangs and over-sized, shapeless clothing.
Nina is harboring a horrible secret and when Dot discovers it by chance she is torn about revealing her own secret in lieu of their tenacious friendship: Nina is having an incestuous relationship with her father and Dot can really talk and hear.
What follows is a somewhat sordid metaphorical foray into the darker aspects of human nature but it is handled with ham-fisted dialogue by screenwriters Abdi Nazemian and Micah Schraft with plodding direction by Jamie Babbit that by the third and climactic act is all but underscored with a Sharpie marker and is nothing but a junky resolve to what could've been an interesting character study for either of the young, talented actresses to sink their teeth into. Falco and Donovan seem to be wasted in the process with Falco's character zombie'd on sleeping pills and other pharmaceuticals while Donovan's father figure has shades of sympathy until the second half where he becomes a ridiculous monster. Although busty newcomer Mixon makes for a nice bitch her character too becomes a parody of what a nasty little girl has blossomed into and Ashmore provides a somewhat sympathetic nice guy, again until the clumsy ending.
The sex scenes are somewhat discreet which is probably a good thing considering incest at the forefront and not unlike its seamy predecessor "Wild Things", baring only in resemblance as an overheated pot that needs to be simmered.