Snap Judgment: "A Quiet Place"

Hey friends,

It's time for another Snap Judgment!  Let's go!

I'd like to share my thoughts about "A Quiet Place" (2018).

• The movie explains just enough (almost).

I've noted before that I really appreciate a film that respects the intelligence of its audience, and that by proxy I kind of resent movies that beat us over the head by making explicit information that could have been conveyed with greater subtlety.  I like being trusted to pay attention and make my own deductions from collections of newspaper clippings and scribbled notes tacked to a wall or the chaotic arrangement of detritus in an abandoned street.

"A Quiet Place" risks taking this to somewhat of an extreme place by not working much at all to explain the current state of affairs portrayed in the film.  While we do know how many days have elapsed since the world appears to have irrevocably changed, we have no idea where the sound-hunting creatures that haunt this film came from or what the state of the rest of the world is.  I would have appreciated a little more elaboration on these questions simply to satisfy my curiosity, but overall the intentional lack of back story contributes well to the film's overall sense of out-of-the-blue, world-changing shell shock congealing into bleak new-normal hypervigilant survival mode.

• But: it has some notable plot holes.

There are nevertheless definitely some aspects of the film that I would argue require more explanation than is offered to avoid stretching the credulity of the audience.  For example: "A Quiet Place" opens in a pharmacy, where the Abbott family hunts for medication because one of their children is ill.  After a jump ahead in time, Evelyn Abbott (played by Emily Blunt) is pregnant.

Just to recap: the Abbott family lives in a world in which making *any sound* will summon terrifying, other-worldly, murderous predators.  You know what infants are really good at?  (Hint: not silence.)

But... but... you just showed us they have access to a pharmacy.  You know what pharmacies have?  SO MANY BIRTH CONTROL METHODS.  More explanation is needed here.

SO MANY.  THERE'S LITERALLY A WHOLE AREA FOR IT.

Here's the thing: there are all sorts of interesting ways of explaining Evelyn's pregnancy.  Without getting into spoilers territory, some include: Maybe they feel obligated to help repopulate the planet?  Maybe this pregnancy is accidental, and the Abbott family is anti-abortion, so they know have to square the impossible world they live in with their beliefs?  Maybe the people-eating creatures don't respond to--or are even bizarrely subdued by--baby-screaming?  (This last one is admittedly highly unlikely.)

With no explanation to go on, this development runs the risk of seeming like a simple conceit upon which to build a movie.  I mean, obviously, it is, but the fact that the movie offers no explanation for it threatens to bump the audience out of the movie.  This seems like a pretty significant oversight that could have been fixed with a few lines of dialogue.

Some other questions that linger unanswered:
--If you can soundproof one part of your house, why not soundproof everything??
--If you can set some noise-producing distractions, why not put them everywhere??
--Why does your son need to learn to fish, but your daughter doesn't??
--Perhaps minor spoilers but: Why IN GOD'S NAME is there a nail there???

• It has great artistic design.

There are lots of great artistic choices made throughout "A Quiet Place".  The sound-murdering things look great.  They are reminiscent of other classic alien/monsters with some adaptations that make them interesting and new.  The set design and setting pit the horror of the story against a beautiful countryside and a surprisingly homey-feeling farm, capturing an atmosphere that balances feeble attempts to reclaim a now-extinct life against the ever-present existential threat of the present day.

It would be a lot easier to enjoy this nice family outing if it weren't for the terrifying human-killing beasts lurking at every turn.

• It's competently scary.

Because of this well-constructed contrast, the movie's frequent jump scares are skillfully nestled in an effective atmosphere of stifling creepiness.  Another aspect of this film that I appreciated was that the jump scares aren't cheap fake-outs--when you jump, it's with good reason.

• And finally, the performances are great.

The cast of "A Quiet Place" does an overall very effective job of breathing the spirit of a genuine family drama into an also very effective horror movie.  It's really interesting to watch the on-screen chemistry between actual spouses Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, who directs and plays husband/father Lee Abbott.  Blunt imbues Evelyn with a particularly potent mix of heartbreak, fear, and resilience.  The Abbott's son Marcus, played by Noah Jupe, compellingly portrays the miserable terror of a child in a living nightmare.

In many ways, however, the film hangs on the performance of Millicent Simmonds, who plays the Abbott's oldest child Regan.  Because Regan is deaf, we can tacitly infer that she is the reason for her family's survival in their current ordeal--if they were not already able to communicate in sign language, they would have a much more difficult path ahead of them.  Simmonds balances the maturity of a young woman trying to carry a burden of grief and guilt against the perils of being a rebellious, angry, and frustrated teenager in what is essentially the apocalypse.

With all these factors considered, I gave "A Quiet Place" a 4.  It's still in theaters--I recommend you check it out!

{Heart}