Director
Jamie Babbit
Cast
Elisha Cuthbert Nina Deer
Camilla Belle Dot
Edie Falco Olivia Deer
Martin Donovan Paul Deer
Shawn Ashmore Connor
DVD Release Date: February 13, 2007
Rating: R
Running Time: 96 Minutes
The Movie
Already without her mother for some time, Dot (Camilla Belle) has also now just lost her father. Sent to live with the Deer family, she finds out quickly that being different is making her an outcast among everyone. She comes into the household with only her father’s ashes contained in a cardboard box to console her.
Olivia Deer (Edie Falco) is an alcoholic and addicted to painkillers so most of the time she is so out of it, that she doesn’t even know she’s being inconsiderate. Paul Deer (Martin Donovan) is so wrapped up in himself that he treats Dot like she is a four year-old instead of a grown teenager. And then there’s Nina Deer (Elisha Cuthbert) who is an only child, the popular and beautiful cheerleader at school, and has no desire to have some “freak” come into her life so of course she’s going to make Dot feel like even more of a burden.
Dot really only wants to keep to herself anyway; so the fact that everyone ignores her doesn’t seem to bother her much. She just goes to school, goes home, keeps to herself, and tries to make some sense of the weird family she is now a part of. That is until she discovers a dirty secret that Nina and Paul Deer have been covering up. She stumbles across something that she shouldn’t have and Nina knows it. But it isn’t long before Nina uncovers a secret that Dot has been hiding. It’s at that point that it all becomes a game of who will crack first and spill the information that could change all their lives.
First of all, the movie just isn’t good. I’m sorry, but it isn’t. The story isn’t bad at all, but it’s the way that everything is presented that makes the film so hard to watch. Perhaps it is because the entire thing has all been done before so many times that it’s just tiring seeing it again. There’s the trashy mother who does nothing all film but get loaded and act as if she has no clue what is going on. Paul is supposed to come across as a really creepy guy, but they do nothing to make it seem as if he is more then a concerned father with some extra urges. Jump to Nina and her way over the top friend Michelle and it turns into a big clichéd high school movie. They act like teenage whores and stuck-up cliquish snobs who will put down the unpopular and ogle the good-looking basketball players.
Throw in lots of little plot holes and a bad script and it makes the film even that much harder to enjoy. The plot holes aren’t extremely noticeable but they will stick out to you and make you wonder if they’re ever going to go back to them or touch on the subject again. For instance, in one scene Michelle and Nina are laying in bed together wondering how anyone could ever know if they are a bad kisser and if someone would actually tell them if they weren’t. Michelle says that she would have to kiss someone she trusts and hope they give her honest truth. There’s a bit of tension as if she wants Nina to kiss her, but then the scene ends and nothing else ever gets mentioned about her sudden “lesbian” urges. I use the quotes because maybe she is leaning towards being a lesbian? Or perhaps she may just want to try something new? We have no idea because after the scene ends, that’s it.
Some of the horrible lines delivered in the film just make you want to turn it off right away too. Yes, they are really that bad. I know these are supposed to be high school kids, but even when I was in high school ten years ago, I could never imagine myself telling someone I was a virgin by saying, “Ya know, I’ve never actually stuck it inside.”
The Video
The film is shown in 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen format and looks perfectly fine. The Quiet is meant to be a darker and bit disturbing film so more then half of the film takes place at night so as to give it that creepier feeling. It comes across well, but it makes it harder to get a good feel as to the look of the film because so much of it takes place in the shadows.
The Audio
The film is heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and it works well. For one thing, one of the main characters is a mute so you aren’t looking for much in the way of dialogue coming from her. So when she’s on screen, your ears are only focused on whoever else may be around her which makes the fact that background noise can be easily heard a good thing.
Special Features
Fetal Pig, Fetal Pig, Let Me In – There’s a scene in the film where the kids are in biology class and dissecting fetal pigs. The prop guy simply talks here and if you’ll pardon the pun, dissects the scene as to how it all came about. Not a whole lot to see here, so I wouldn’t even bother taking the five minutes to watch it considering the actual scene itself is less then a minute long.
Locations: Shooting In Austin – Cast and crew give their thoughts on how it was shooting in Austin. A bit of an interesting feature because the director went around and actually asked locals if they could shoot the film in their homes. Surprising how many people were willing to let an entire cast and crew with equipment come into their home and just start filming sometimes for days on end.
Sans Celluloid: The Quiet and Digital Cinema – Director Jamie Babbit goes into in depth detail about she preferred shooting this film in HD and was pleased with how it turned out. She was looking for a bit of a handheld camera type feel that may have given the film an even darker feeling then it already portrayed.
Script Development – The director, writers, and cast discuss how the entire script came together to the final draft it is now. An extra that is a bit useless because they virtually tell the story of the entire film without actually giving away any plot points. Imagine you are reading the back of the DVD case to find out what it is about, but that it takes you close to ten minutes to read that small paragraph and that’s what you get here.
The Cast – All about how the actors were chosen for the roles they received and how they were supposed to portray those characters. Nothing too interesting here.
Trailers РThe Italian, Curse Of The Golden Flower, Quincea̱era, Volver, Driving Lessons, American Hardcore, House Of Sand, Art School Confidential, Dreamland, and Riding Alone For Thousands Of Miles
The Inside Pulse
There is nothing about the film itself that should make you want to purchase The Quiet DVD. With a lot of special features that only add up to maybe an hour even a rental isn’t worth your time or money. The film really had a lot of potential with some talented actors and a good plot, but it failed miserably in the execution. The only thing saving this from a possible score of “1” is that there are so many good trailers included. But if its trailers you want, hop on the internet. If it’s enjoyment you are looking for, then look somewhere else.
