The Quiet – Silence is golden… sort of

The Quiet (2005) directed by Jamie Babbit stars Camilla Belle as Dot, Elisha Cuthbert (Nina Deer), Edie Falco (Olivia Deer), Martin Donovan (Paul Deer) and Shawn Ashmore (Connor).

It’s not often that you see a teenage girl garrotte a grown man. I must admit that I kind of enjoy it.

Other than that I can see that this is the kind of movie that is bound to cause some problems when it comes to defining category. Stay with me here and I will explain why.

Dot, a deaf/mute girl loses her father and is sent to live with relatives – the Deer family. This is one of those perfect on the surface families. The daughter, Nina, is a cheerleader, the mom works hard at finishing the interior decorating and the father is successful at his job. Dot doesn’t fit in anywhere – at school the cheerleaders dismissively say that not even the freaks want her.

Dot becomes a kind of receptacle for other peoples innermost secrets. Since she does not communicate with the outside world in any way, it is as if the people talking to her are talking to themselves.

Dot is neither deaf, nor mute. She has simply chosen not to speak and pretend that she cannot hear those around her out of loyalty to her father – who was a real deaf-mute.

It’s a very clever premise, especially since her foster family hides some pretty nasty secrets under the sunny cellophane of their picture-perfect front. There is drug use, incest and emotional chaos, all of which Dot witnesses, but because she has set herself apart she cannot do anything about it, other than seethe.

A lot of this movie is set in school and in the climate of what would normally be a teen movie. The high school dance, classes, the basketball game, all these typical settings are used. The scenes that are set in the Deer family home read more like a classical chamber play – especially since the mother can never finish decorating, thus leaving the home environment looking vast and bleak and not very inviting.

The themes of the movie, the tone and the music are at odds with the clichés from teen movies. There is a great distance in how these things are treated that make it look more like a play. Dot’s voiceover is a very good example of enacted alienation with lines like: “All I wanted was to be invisible. It was a simple request. It didn’t involve anyone else. When I was in a room with another person, I felt like I was only half there. When I was in a room with two other people, I felt like a third of myself. When I was in a room with three other people, I felt like a quarter of myself. And when I was in a whole crowd of people, I felt like nobody.”

Dot wants it that way. She wants the distance, still purblind and reacting to the pain of the loss of her father, but she is drawn out by the horrors of the situation she finds herself in.

That distance, that alienation, is one of the things that cause problems in the narrative. It gets transferred a little too well into the general tenure of the movie and that means it makes it difficult for the viewer to relate to. The strongest scenes, to my mind, are the ones where Dot is either alone, or acting as a receptacle through the deceit that she cannot hear or speak.

Camilla Belle is one of those actresses that is not only stunningly beautiful, the camera loves her, but she also has enormous presence. She pulls this off seemingly without breaking a sweat. I, for one, am looking forward to what seeing what the future will bring for her. The accomplished young lady also plays the piano, something that is made good use of in this movie. Edie Falco, of Soprano-fame, plays the numb housewife well here, but it might not be that much of a stretch for her and Martin Donovan is suitable creepy. Elisha Cuthbert is stuck with a more stereotypical role with her blond bouncy cheerleader/victim, but she gives it a leg and an arm.

The incongruity of the overall feel of the movie for me personally comes from the glitch between the teen movie clichés and the many ways in which this is a drama and thriller in a more noir style. I think I would have preferred if it had leaned heavier on the noir language.

It’s still worth watching, if for no other reason than how rare seeing a teenage girl using a piano wire to garrotte someone. Don’t worry – it’s all in context.

Mule

The Ballad of Jack and Rose

The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005) is written and directed by Rebecca Miller and stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Jack and Camilla Belle as Rose.

The basic premise is that father and daughter live in an old hippie commune as the last remnants of a former era. Rose is kind of a naive flower and Jack is her loving father, watching his girl grow up albeit with some trepidation. Amongst other things the couple have to contend with a developer Marty Rance (Beau Bridges) who wants to exploit the land, Jack’s girlfriend Kathleen (Catherine Keener) and her sons Rodney (Ryan McDonald) and Thaddius (Paul Dano) who come to live with the two outcasts once it’s been made clear that Jack isn’t doing well.

Actually the little idyll that the viewer first gets introduced to is besieged from all directions by outside and inside forces. The relationship between father and daughter is on a dangerous path, becoming almost too close, and the illness that has taken hold of Jack threatens their balance even further. Jack’s girlfriend Kathleen and her two sons seem loud and brash and disruptive in their intrusion and Rose rebels by cutting off her hair and making attempts at freeing herself, or making her father jealous, it’s a very fine line.

This is, to my mind, one of the finest performances I’ve seen from Daniel Day-Lewis. Much of the bluster of There Will Be Blood (2007) is missing and this is a much closer set piece, and his portrait of a man who knows his time is coming to an end is worthy of close study. Camilla Belle as young Rose manages to tread that fine line of cruelty and naiveté that a sixteen year old girl is capable of without making it cringe worthy. Paul Dano as Thaddius was a surprise to me personally, because the last role I saw him perform was Dwayne in Little Miss Sunshine (2006) and there he is somewhat oafish, whereas he is definitely the snake in the paradise in this particular movie.

The movies subject matter, the subtext and some of the more overt themes are bound to bother some viewers, but I think its beautifully played, a thorough piece of craftsmanship on all parts. The writing is excellent, the performances are authentic and the setting is well used and cleverly developed.

Just the opening scene where the soundtrack intones “I Put a Spell on You” with Creedence Clearwater Revival shows where this is going and where it has been. The music is just there, pointing to the hippie era and then there are these two last lost survivors, father and daughter in a beautiful, but isolated landscape, in their own little world which is about to be rent asunder.

I really enjoyed this and think it should have gotten much more attention than it did.

MULE