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List Price: $14.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 9798
Released: February 13, 2007 |
| Our Price: $8.11 |
| Used Price: $4.88 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
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.System Requirements:Run Time: 96 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: FOREIGN/LATIN Rating: R UPC: 043396165823 Manufacturer No: 16582
Description of The Quiet:
High school cheerleader Nina Deer (Elisha Cuthbert) seems like the ultimate bitch in The Quiet. When Paul and Olivia Deer (Martin Donovan and Edie Falco) invite their deaf and mute godchild, Dot (Camilla Belle) to live with the family following the death of Dot's father, Nina plays Dot's evil stepsister. Dot silently persists as household dynamics unfold nightmarishly around her, revealing an unsavory affair that leaves the mother reaching for her bottle of painkillers. The more Nina reveals her secret fantasy to Dot, however, the more Dot feels compelled to step in. Director Jamie Babbit's film is rich with sexual confusion and sick psychology, making The Quiet surprisingly complex. Though Elisha Cuthbert's performance is strong, it is still a slowly paced film, and the sets, like dark, moody blue rooms in the Deer house, add unneeded melodrama. Still, The Quiet is a thriller about teen girls bonded to commit a heinous crime, and many will appreciate this variation on the tale of young female chivalry against monstrosity. --Trinie Dalton
The Quiet Reviews:
I like it 
2008-05-07 - This was a really good movie. Its kind of slow paced but worth watching. SHows you how crazy the world is.
Punked, but still enjoyed the flick. Tense, slightly erotic. Psychological thriller.
2008-03-23 - Ok, I was suckered by the previews and the cover. I thought (or hoped) this would be sort of a step daughter gets freaky kinda movie. Perverted, yeah, but...wait till you learn more about the family!
I became caught up in this film, despite my original expectations not being fulfilled. Ironically, I came to care about the characters, and rooted for closure. This movie is difficult to review without giving the good stuff away, but if you can set aside your preconceived notions and roll with the story you are in for a wild ride.
Even the slow scenes are full of tension, and I consider this to be a Psychological thriller. This movie is full of teenage motifs, family psychoses, action, and revelations that unfold into a great climax.
Quietly Loud
2008-03-08 - The Quiet us a very duscincerting movie. The entire movie is very dark, from the story to the setting. It deals quite frankly with sexual abuse and violence. After her parents die, Dot gets adopted by the family of one of her childhood friends. Since she does not hear or speak, she becomes a sounding board for all of the family secrets, as well as some of her friends from school. Many of these secrets have dramatic effects on people by the end of the movie.
I liked this movie, but only watch it if you have a strong stomach.
Boring 
2007-12-16 - There is a family of three - a mother, father and a daughter. They adopt a deaf girl who has just lost her father. The deaf girl is struggling to mix in at the high school and with her new family. The family is dysfunctional and not even one character in this movie was likeable. The mother is an alcoholic, and a pill popper, the father sexually abuses his daughter and the daughter is following in her mother's footsteps and experimenting with drugs. Some issues are covered such as how life would be for a deaf person, and incest. The acting is ok, the storyline is average and the movie goes at a slow pace. Overall it was a pretty boring movie and I didn't walk away with anything. I forgot all of the characters names after the movie was over.
If But for the Patchworked Completion 
2007-12-05 - The Quiet starts out looking like a story focusing on a deaf-mute girl that moves in with her godparents after her father dies, but it quickly takes on more forms and turns into something other than the preconceived artifice. The changes are good ones, too, and the story is well-acted and well-derived and actually kept me watching to see what was going to transpire. The people in it, from the superficial jock that hopes to be more to the cheerleaders that populate the major acting posts, were believable and the household our little Rome represented was interesting and tormented and had enough pieces floating here and there that it made me take heed. The problem was that the movie, like so many others, went from the top of the ladder to the middle a little too quickly, leaving me to ponder what went wrong.
As I review this, I need to point out that I'm not saying I really disliked the movie. Over 2/3s of the film were done really well, and had the end delivered a little more then I would have been happy. Had a few pieces fallen differently and a few moments been taken out of the fray, my view of the piece would be one of total contentment because I liked he things the movie tried to say. The idea about "The Quiet," asking what happens when something becomes invisible; it struck me as playful in some ways and disturbing in others. That said, the pieces I didn't care for were too much in the making and, sadder still, the ending didn't live up to the unspoken promises that were seeded throughout the plotline.
People have differing opinions on The Quiet that seem to range the spectrum through and through, and depending on what you need will probably determine whether this movie is for you. I liked the premise, the preface, and so many other portions of the movie that it makes me want to say that I liked it and speak glowingly on the subject. The problem is that the movie was flawed, much too much in the end to ignore, and those last ten minutes made me wonder why the idea hadn't been executed with more zeal.
