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The Quiet (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:25
Fresh:3
Rotten:22
Average Rating:3.5/10
Consensus: This psychological thriller's talented cast is undercut by leaden pacing and a problematic plot.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong and disturbing sexual content, a scene of violence, language, drug content and brief nudity.
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Aug 25, 2006 Limited
Box Office: $289,969
Synopsis: Jamie Babbitt (GILMORE GIRLS) makes his feature debut with this suburban melodrama tinged with the trappings of exploitation films and Gothic horror. Dot (Camilla Belle, THE CHUMSCRUBBER) is a deaf... Jamie Babbitt (GILMORE GIRLS) makes his feature debut with this suburban melodrama tinged with the trappings of exploitation films and Gothic horror. Dot (Camilla Belle, THE CHUMSCRUBBER) is a deaf and mute girl with a troubled past: her mother died when she was seven, and now her deaf father has been run over by a truck. Things get much worse for Dot, however, when she moves in with the Deer family, who make no attempt to hide their dark secrets from her. Patriarch Paul Deer (Martin Donovan) is having an incestuous relationship with his cheerleader daughter, Nina (Elisha Cuthbert, LOVE, ACTUALLY), who spends much of her time lashing out at the new addition to the family. Mother Olivia remains oblivious, shrouded in a haze of pills. Slowly, the two girls come to a tenuous understanding with one another, united in the secrets they share. The shocking conclusion is unexpectedly lurid given the quietness of the film's first half, and the two actresses carry the material beautifully. The coldly lit interior of the family home, which is undergoing renovations, ,creates an utterly creepy backdrop and sets the mood for this tone poem of suburban distress. [More]
Starring: Elisha Cuthbert, Camilla Belle, Edie Falco, Martin Donovan
Starring: Elisha Cuthbert, Camilla Belle, Edie Falco, Martin Donovan, Shawn Ashmore
Director: Jamie Babbitt
Director: Jamie Babbitt
Screenwriter: Abdi Nazemian, Micah Schraft
Composer: Jeff Rona
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
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Reviews for The Quiet
In retrospect, it is Belle who manages to acquit herself best with a role that never quite makes sense, but affords her some expressive, silent sequences. Surely she will find other film work and then quietly drop The Quiet from her biography.
One strength of The Quiet is that it does not deal exploitatively with the incest/sexual abuse issue in its quest to generate tension.
Rather than an indictment of depravity, the movie quickly becomes a particularly cynical example of it.
The exposition is so heavy-handed, the producers might just as well distribute a printed handout to hapless ticket buyers.
The film's focus shouldn't be Dot (Camilla Belle), a deaf, mute and orphaned teen. It should be her new family of suburbanites sliding into hell.
Characters already too wicked to be credible start doing stuff simply too stupid to be believed, with no help from a cast way too overmatched to be useful.
A drama that all but begs to have its earnestness called into question.
Sometimes a movie is so repulsive and devoid of redeeming material that afterward, you're certain it doesn't deserve to exist.
It's a complete fraud that never feels the least bit authentic in its efforts to titillate and shock.
The Quiet is in such bad taste that it's a shame the thriller doesn't make a better bad movie.
An unnerving little psychological study that makes the most of the high-def aesthetic.
The director combines an angst-ridden look at suburban perversions with a teen titillation comedy, and the final product often comes off as pretentious, crass and overwrought.
Trapped between edgy art flick and exploitation psychothriller, The Quiet manages to be neither, and manages to be pretty awful in the bargain.
The stupider things get, the more seriously it takes itself -- and the more seriously it takes itself, the funnier it is.
[Falls] back on angsty, adolescent clichés about how sick and shallow suburbia is. It may be, sometimes. But it's still not quite as sick and shallow as this.
A repugnant little indie black comedy, poorly acted in hideous-looking digital video, guaranteed to send audiences fleeing for the nearest shower.
Latest News for The Quiet
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