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Hush THE QUIET: Directed by Jamie Babbit. Written by Abdi Nazemian and Micah Schraft. Starring Elisha Cuthbert, Camilla Belle, Shawn Ashmore, Martin Donovan and Edie Falco. Sony Pictures Classics, 2006. R. 96 minutes.
The second feature film from director Jamie Babbit (But I'm a Cheerleader) is a muddle of dark, foggy rooms in which secrets and relationships play out to nasty ends. Nina Deer (Elisha Cuthbert) is a high school cheerleader who acts as if she had a perfect life before her parents (Martin Donovan and Edie Falco) took in their orphaned, deaf and mute goddaughter Dot (Camilla Belle). In their spooky, half-empty house, the Deers are a dreary, unsubtle version of the typical not-as-perfect-as-they-seem cinematic family. Mom pops pills; Dad's detached and rude, to say the least; Nina's troubles run far beyond her bitchy best friend and the burden of an unwanted houseguest. Full of awkward acting and strangely washed in everpresent blue light, The Quiet has little to offer beyond the unusual face of Camilla Belle as Dot. Wide-eyed and silent, Dot finds herself absorbing Nina's darkest secrets and the lustful, private thoughts of schoolmate Connor (Shawn Ashmore, Iceman of the X-Men movies, seeming oddly out of place). To no one's surprise, Dot has secrets of her own, which collide with Nina's vicious whispers for a violent ending that strips all sense from the movie. The Quiet mistakes rough edges and cruelty for character depth, gloomy scenes and dated score for atmosphere. Its glacial pace and inexplicable shifts in character leave little to like and hardly more to find interesting in yet another story about how families are never perfect, and no one is exactly what they seem. –Molly Templeton The Quiet opens Friday, Sept. 1 at the Bijou. |
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