The Quiet
Encyclopedia
The Quiet is a 2005 American drama
and thriller film directed by Jamie Babbit
, and starring Camilla Belle
and Elisha Cuthbert
. It focuses on a mute teenage girl, Dot (Belle) who goes to live with her godparents (played by Martin Donovan
and Edie Falco
) after her father dies, where she slowly learns the disturbing secrets of the family, primarily concerning their teenage daughter, Nina (Cuthbert).
The film was acquired by Destination Films
, which released this film in the United States theatrically through Sony Pictures Classics
on August 25, 2006, and marketed with the tagline
: "Isn't it time everyone hears your secrets?".
The film's soundtrack features songs by Low
, Cat Power
, Le Tigre
, and numerous Beethoven piano sonatas.
Many reviewers complained that it was sleazy, exploitative, and difficult to watch, and that it was too serious to be satire, yet too camp to be taken seriously. Despite receiving poor reviews, the film made a respectable profit.
), a young, orphaned, deaf and mute
girl. She is sent to live with her godparents and their daughter Nina (Elisha Cuthbert
), with whom she used to be close friends. However, she soon learns the secrets of her new family.
Nina is unhinged by Dot's arrival and she constantly insults Dot every chance she gets. Dot blames herself for her father's death in a car accident. She believes that if she had been with him, she could have warned him of the oncoming danger. Soon after arriving, Dot discovers an incestuous relationship between Nina and her father, Paul (Martin Donovan
), a successful architect with "the best house in Meriden
." Paul invited Dot to stay in an attempt to control himself, wishing he could end the sexual relationship between him and his daughter. He tries to tell his wife Olivia (Edie Falco
) about his relationship with Nina, but is unable to bring himself to say it. It is implied that Olivia is aware of the abuse, but drugs herself with pills to avoid dealing with it.
After discovering that Dot is neither deaf nor mute, Nina pretends that she doesn't know the truth. For reasons of her own, Nina still pretends that Dot cannot tell anyone, and she confides in Dot her plan to murder her father. Dot becomes aware of everything Nina and Paul do behind closed doors and even tries to help Nina avoid Paul's advances.
Dot is assigned to be lab partners with Connor (Shawn Ashmore
), a star basketball player. Their working together arouses jealousy in Michelle (Katy Mixon
), Nina's loudmouthed best friend, who is very attracted to Connor. Michelle looks down on Nina and is very condescending. Connor is able to communicate well with Dot by lip-reading in order to work on their report, knowing that with a disability of his own (Attention Deficit Disorder) he needs to improve his grades to receive a basketball scholarship. He also becomes very attracted to Dot's beauty, both in the physical sense and because of her ability to play the piano.
Connor confides to Dot about very personal things in his life because he believes that she is unable to hear him. After confiding that he is a virgin, Dot undresses for him and he has sex with her. Dot realizes that part of his attraction to her is because of her deafness and she pushes him away.
Before the "Spring Fling" dance, Nina tells Paul that she is pregnant, and needs $1000 for an abortion. However, once he discovers tampons in her purse, he realizes that she is being untruthful and is only attempting to obtain the money to get away from the house. As Dot begins to play moonlight sonata downstairs, Paul confronts Nina about her lie. Nina tries to explain, but Paul, distressed that his daughter wants to leave him, begins to physically abuse her. The abuse turns into an attempt at rape. Dot recognizes what is going on upstairs, stops playing piano (although the sonata plays on), and heads upstairs. The music finally stops when Dot uses a piano wire to strangle Paul to death, screaming at him to leave Nina alone. All the while, Olivia remains downstairs staring at the news in a pill-induced stupor. The eerie silence is only broken when Paul's body hits the ground and Nina starts screaming and cursing at Dot. Olivia comes upstairs and her only comment on being faced with Paul's body is to tell Dot that it's a miracle that she can hear.
The two girls go to the Spring Fling dance where Dot dances with Connor, then reveals to him that she is able to hear and talk. Connor calls her a psycho and then storms away. Then both girls bury the backpack with Nina's dress, covered in her father's blood, inside it. At this point, Nina questions Dot about pretending to be deaf and mute. Dot reveals that she wanted to be closer to her father so she wouldn't be alone. When the girls return home, Olivia has turned herself into the police and claims that she, not Dot, killed Paul in order to protect her daughter and atone for allowing the abuse. The film ends on an uncertain note as the two girls play piano together, free from their fathers.
and "was ready to do something that was definitely more character-driven." She read the Sundance workshop script by writers Abdi Nazemian and Micah Shraft, who had not previously made a feature film, and became an associate producer for the film, originally to be titled Dot.
Cuthbert initially wanted to play role of the silent Dot, but director Jamie Babbit instead cast Belle in that part after Thora Birch
pulled out. Babbit reasoned that "To me, Dot has to be someone you could believe would be invisible in high school. You look at Elisha, this beautiful woman with the most perfect body you've ever seen, and you think, there's no high school in America where this girl could be invisible. No matter how much hair and makeup I do, it's not going to happen." Cuthbert agreed, saying that "When I made another pass through [the script], I specifically zeroed in on Nina, going holy cow, this girl is dealing with even more stuff. The layers there exceeded, in my opinion, Dot's character and her issues... now watching it, thank God for Jamie." Belle's role as Dot was a departure from previous roles and the film was released around the same time as two other indie films starring Belle, The Ballad of Jack and Rose
and The Chumscrubber
. Belle learned sign language
and classical piano for the role, and wore no makeup for the part. She said of her part that "It was a lonely time 'cause she is a very lonely, depressing character." Cuthbert said that acting her part was complicated by Belle "not doing a whole lot in the movie, as far as dialogue goes — it was difficult, because we had to find the right timing and the beats."
The actors were brought together before filming commenced to go through ideas relating to the film, in order that they were familiar with the long-term situation of the characters. Cuthbert spoke to psychiatrists about sexual abuse, and the cast read articles about women who had been sexually abused. The scene where Nina's father Paul attacks her was difficult to film, because Cuthbert was genuinely hurt by Donovan, who was "very method
" during filming, and Babbit was caught between wanting to protect her and the need for Cuthbert "to go to a scary place". Cuthbert said that playing a victim was hard for her, and that "there were moments when I would go to the bathroom and bawl."
The film was shot during September and October 2004, was directed by Jamie Babbit
, and was produced by the University of Texas' Burnt Orange productions as their first feature. It was made for about $1 million, funded by the University of Texas Film Institute
. Although the film is set in suburban Connecticut, Bowie High School
in Austin, Texas
was the principal filming location. 36 University of Texas students worked on the film.
The film was shot in high-definition video
. Variety said that "[director of photography] M. David Mullen
's high-definition, widescreen camerawork supplies a lucid, moody look, matched by Jeff Rona
's brooding score." MSNBC noted that "Every frame of The Quiet, with its overly styled blue-gray tint and hazy interiors, calls to mind 9½ Weeks
, Fatal Attraction
or Unfaithful." Metroactive saw that "the purplish blues (the color that seems to work best in HD) are deeply saturated for such a cost-effective medium, and the color is never milky or streaky. At times, Mullen and Babbit overdo the murk." IndieWire agreed, noting that the "use of smoke to mask the use of high-def video ... results in laughably inexplicable smoky interiors lit like a high school production of Les Miserables." SFStation argued that Babbit effectively exaggerated the limitations of the budget and using HD video: "the video artifacts, lighting, night-time shooting, and sparse sets end up creating an oneiric, fairy-tale quality that helps to balances out the undercurrent of violence that permeates the characters’ actions."
in September 2005, but initially failed to find a distributor. It was released in cinemas by Sony Pictures Classics
, first in New York and Los Angeles on 25 August 2006, then on 300 screens across the US on 1 September 2006.
The film was released on DVD on 13 February 2007, with special features including “Fetal Pig, Fetal Pig, Let Me In”, a featurette on the dissection scene, “On Location: Shooting in Austin”, “Sans Celluloid: The Quiet and the Digital Camera", a script development featurette, and cast selection.
, 22 percent of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 90 reviews. On Metacritic
, the film had an average score of 29 out of 100, based on 24 reviews. Jeanne Aufmuth of Palo Alto Weekly
called it "pretentious and pointless," Laura Clifford of Reeling Reviews said, "Good grief," Michael Booth of The Denver Post
said, "Sometimes a movie is so repulsive and devoid of redeeming material that afterward, you're certain it doesn't deserve to exist," Entertainment Weekly saw it as "dank and rhythmless," and The New York Daily News called it "a screamingly bad melodrama." The Seattle Times summed it up as "bordering on camp and loaded with lesbian undertones, this wretched drama plays like a high-school horror flick that trades monsters and mayhem for an overdose of force-fed cruelty."
Among critics who gave the film positive reviews, Josh Bell of Las Vegas Weekly
said, "Forget Snakes on a Plane
— The Quiet is the new camp classic of the summer." In contrast, Andrea Chase of Killer Movie Reviews called it "a disturbing drama that is as riveting to watch as it is challenging to contemplate." MTV
called it a "a powerful tale of seclusion, sexual abuse and sisterhood." The Monitor believed that "underappreciated at the box office, this film is, excuse the pun, quietly powerful." Patrick Luce of Monsters & Critics called it "a slow-burn thriller that keeps the audience hooked ... thanks to a disturbing plot and solid performances from its cast."
The inconsistency of the film was highlighted by many critics. David Rooney of Variety found that it "seems unsure whether to push for suburban-Gothic psychosexual excess or tongue-in-cheek malevolence ... the film is derailed by its own silliness," while Christy Lemire of MSBNC complained that "Not a single moment feels believable in the film, which is trying very hard to be a sexy, intense psychological thriller but instead just feels lurid and exploitative." Andrew O'Hehir of Salon said that it was "a sleazoid TV movie of the week tarted up in art-school clothes" and that it "wobbles around between genres, a terrible example of what can happen when the wrong sets of talented people get together. It isn't convincing as talky psychological realism or as high-school satire or as ghoulish forbidden melodrama, although Belle and Cuthbert have their best and creepiest moments in that mode." Canoe said it "seems to be utterly clueless about what it actually wants to say." SFStation said that "Babbit, Nazemian and Schraft simply can't decide if they want The Quiet to be regarded as serious drama, social satire, or black comedy."
The writing was subject to frequent criticism. Metroactive felt that "The role [of Olivia, Nina's mother] is savagely underwritten, leaving [Edie] Falco dangling, motiveless, for much of the movie"; Monsters & Critics also felt that "at times her character seems like more of an after thought than having any real purpose." IndieWire also felt that the characters of Dot and Nina were underwritten, and Empire Movies similarly decried the "blatant under-use of two talented young actresses." Filmcritic.com noted that "Cuthbert has to do what she can with a script that sends her character ping-ponging between damaged, vulnerable victim and Heathers-esque school-dominating bitch." The Houston Chronicle criticised the film for "utterly failing its characters." Deseret News said it had "an awful script that features some howlingly bad dialogue," and Canoe concurred: "If the subject matter was not so damn' depressing, this dialogue would be camp-style laughable."
Dot's voice over was widely criticised. Metroactive was disappointed that "unlike [Holly] Hunter in The Piano
, Belle isn't allowed to signal her emotions with music and expression alone. Instead, she mentally addresses the audience with continuous interior yammer." Empire Movies wondered "why not show people talking and holding conversations in the halls one minute then through Dot’s eyes (from her perspective) render the remainder of the scene in complete and perfect silence? ... The narration in The Quiet grows less and less essential as the film progresses to the point where it’s actually intrusive and unnecessary in the last few instances." Salon wryly noted that "Arguably, any movie with this much narration is in trouble to begin with, whether the narrator is deaf, blind or a walrus from Neptune." IndieWire called the voiceover "inane"; Filmcritic called it "maudlin."
Views of the acting of the two leads were often positive. The Daily Californian conceded that "Despite the plot's failings, Cuthbert does a convincing job in her role, exuding an outer shell so tough that when her inner, softer layers emerge, it's a natural change of character." Empire Movies agreed, commenting that "this is Elisha Cuthbert's best film performance to date. Cuthbert's Nina has the majority of the most graphic and disturbing dialogue in the film, especially during one particular lunchroom scene where the camera is close up on Cuthbert and Belle's faces." Metroactive also noted that "Belle nearly carries The Quiet in her close-ups." SFStation agreed that "performance wise, The Quiet belongs to Camilla Belle and Elisha Cuthbert," noting that "Belle ... has to act through body language and facial expressions [and] mostly carries it off, but even a talented actress can only do so much with such a passive role ... Cuthbert acquits herself well in the more active, substantive role (again, for the most part), but her performance is undermined by the questionable decision to put her character in skimpy clothing." However, Ruthe Stein of the San Francisco Chronicle
dissented, arguing that "Cuthbert flounces around a lot but doesn't have the range to express Nina's feelings." Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe said of Belle that "on screen she's hollow. The film is already visually dead, and it dies a little more whenever she's alone in a scene, which is often."
Some critics recognised lesbian undertones to the relationship between Nina and Dot.
, Variety
asking "what is it with Babbit and the pom-pom girls?" Variety also noted that "Belle and Cuthbert provide more-than-adequate echoes of the Thora Birch
-Mena Suvari
dynamic" from American Beauty
. Lauren Kaminsky of IndieWire negatively compared it to the same film, arguing that "this film somehow manages to surpass even American Beauty (to which the filmmakers no doubt hope their effort will be compared) in hateful representations of women, dopily sympathetic men, and heaps of misplaced misogyny."
IndieWire said that "like Hunter Richards's similarly awful London
, The Quiet is the sort of pretentious indie posturing that (poorly) attempts to disguise lousy writing with misguidedly busy, self-important filmmaking. The Columbus Dispatch
believed that it "is so loaded with sensationalism that it might have been intended as a black satire in the style of Heathers
[but it is treated with] severe seriousness, like a Tennessee Williams
potboiler for the Internet generation." The New York Times said that the film lacked the "go-for-broke lunacy that makes a flick like Wild Things
a classic of its trashy kind and might have saved this film." The Houston Chronicle labelled it "Mean Girls
without the satire and with more grating extremes," while Filmcritic.com said "it comes off as simply amateur comedy -Pretty Persuasion
without the guts."
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
and thriller film directed by Jamie Babbit
Jamie Babbit
Jamie Babbit is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. She directed the films But I'm a Cheerleader, The Quiet and Itty Bitty Titty Committee. She has also directed episodes of television programs including Gilmore Girls, Malcolm in the Middle, United States of Tara, Nip/Tuck and...
, and starring Camilla Belle
Camilla Belle
Camilla Belle is an American actress. Her works include The Lost World: Jurassic Park, When a Stranger Calls, 10,000 BC, The Quiet, Push and Speedy Singhs.- Early life :...
and Elisha Cuthbert
Elisha Cuthbert
Elisha Ann Cuthbert is a Canadian film and television actress. Cuthbert is known as the former co-host of the Canadian children's television series Popular Mechanics for Kids. In 1998, she had her first film role in Airspeed. She followed this in 2003 with a role in Old School...
. It focuses on a mute teenage girl, Dot (Belle) who goes to live with her godparents (played by Martin Donovan
Martin Donovan
Martin Donovan is an American stage and film actor. He has had a long collaboration with the director Hal Hartley, appearing in many of his films, including Trust , Surviving Desire , Simple Men , Flirt , Amateur , and The Book of Life...
and Edie Falco
Edie Falco
Edith "Edie" Falco is an American television, film and stage actress, known for her roles in Oz as Diane Wittlesey, as Carmela Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos, and as the titular character on the Showtime series Nurse Jackie...
) after her father dies, where she slowly learns the disturbing secrets of the family, primarily concerning their teenage daughter, Nina (Cuthbert).
The film was acquired by Destination Films
Destination Films
Destination Films is Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions' independent film division. The company was originally founded and established by Brent Baum and Steve Stabler in 1999. The logo is two halves of a ring formed at the top and the bottom with a line with a crescent on one end and a star on...
, which released this film in the United States theatrically through Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics is an art-house film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded in December 1991 that distributes, produces and acquires specialty films from the United States and around the world. Its co-presidents are Michael Barker and Tom Bernard...
on August 25, 2006, and marketed with the tagline
Tagline
A tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product , or to reinforce the audience's memory of a product...
: "Isn't it time everyone hears your secrets?".
The film's soundtrack features songs by Low
Low (band)
Low is an American indie rock group from Duluth, Minnesota, formed in 1993. As of 2010, the group is composed of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker , both founding members, and Steve Garrington ....
, Cat Power
Cat Power
Charlyn Marie Marshall , also known as Chan Marshall or by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer/songwriter and occasional actress and model. Cat Power was originally the name of Marshall's first band, but has come to refer to her musical projects with various backing bands...
, Le Tigre
Le Tigre
Le Tigre is an American electroclash band, formed by Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman in 1998. It also featured Sadie Benning from 1998 until 2001, and JD Samson for the rest of the group's run...
, and numerous Beethoven piano sonatas.
Many reviewers complained that it was sleazy, exploitative, and difficult to watch, and that it was too serious to be satire, yet too camp to be taken seriously. Despite receiving poor reviews, the film made a respectable profit.
Plot
The story revolves around Dot (Camilla BelleCamilla Belle
Camilla Belle is an American actress. Her works include The Lost World: Jurassic Park, When a Stranger Calls, 10,000 BC, The Quiet, Push and Speedy Singhs.- Early life :...
), a young, orphaned, deaf and mute
Muteness
Muteness or mutism is an inability to speak caused by a speech disorder. The term originates from the Latin word mutus, meaning "silent".-Causes:...
girl. She is sent to live with her godparents and their daughter Nina (Elisha Cuthbert
Elisha Cuthbert
Elisha Ann Cuthbert is a Canadian film and television actress. Cuthbert is known as the former co-host of the Canadian children's television series Popular Mechanics for Kids. In 1998, she had her first film role in Airspeed. She followed this in 2003 with a role in Old School...
), with whom she used to be close friends. However, she soon learns the secrets of her new family.
Nina is unhinged by Dot's arrival and she constantly insults Dot every chance she gets. Dot blames herself for her father's death in a car accident. She believes that if she had been with him, she could have warned him of the oncoming danger. Soon after arriving, Dot discovers an incestuous relationship between Nina and her father, Paul (Martin Donovan
Martin Donovan
Martin Donovan is an American stage and film actor. He has had a long collaboration with the director Hal Hartley, appearing in many of his films, including Trust , Surviving Desire , Simple Men , Flirt , Amateur , and The Book of Life...
), a successful architect with "the best house in Meriden
Meriden, Connecticut
Meriden is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 59,653.-History:...
." Paul invited Dot to stay in an attempt to control himself, wishing he could end the sexual relationship between him and his daughter. He tries to tell his wife Olivia (Edie Falco
Edie Falco
Edith "Edie" Falco is an American television, film and stage actress, known for her roles in Oz as Diane Wittlesey, as Carmela Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos, and as the titular character on the Showtime series Nurse Jackie...
) about his relationship with Nina, but is unable to bring himself to say it. It is implied that Olivia is aware of the abuse, but drugs herself with pills to avoid dealing with it.
After discovering that Dot is neither deaf nor mute, Nina pretends that she doesn't know the truth. For reasons of her own, Nina still pretends that Dot cannot tell anyone, and she confides in Dot her plan to murder her father. Dot becomes aware of everything Nina and Paul do behind closed doors and even tries to help Nina avoid Paul's advances.
Dot is assigned to be lab partners with Connor (Shawn Ashmore
Shawn Ashmore
Shawn Robert Ashmore is a Canadian film and television actor, perhaps best known for his role as Jake in the Animorphs television series and Iceman in the X-Men films. He is the twin brother of actor Aaron Ashmore.-Early life:...
), a star basketball player. Their working together arouses jealousy in Michelle (Katy Mixon
Katy Mixon
Katy Elizabeth Mixon is an American actress. She is best known for her role as April Buchanon on HBO's Eastbound & Down and Victoria Flynn on the CBS television series Mike and Molly.-Life and career:...
), Nina's loudmouthed best friend, who is very attracted to Connor. Michelle looks down on Nina and is very condescending. Connor is able to communicate well with Dot by lip-reading in order to work on their report, knowing that with a disability of his own (Attention Deficit Disorder) he needs to improve his grades to receive a basketball scholarship. He also becomes very attracted to Dot's beauty, both in the physical sense and because of her ability to play the piano.
Connor confides to Dot about very personal things in his life because he believes that she is unable to hear him. After confiding that he is a virgin, Dot undresses for him and he has sex with her. Dot realizes that part of his attraction to her is because of her deafness and she pushes him away.
Before the "Spring Fling" dance, Nina tells Paul that she is pregnant, and needs $1000 for an abortion. However, once he discovers tampons in her purse, he realizes that she is being untruthful and is only attempting to obtain the money to get away from the house. As Dot begins to play moonlight sonata downstairs, Paul confronts Nina about her lie. Nina tries to explain, but Paul, distressed that his daughter wants to leave him, begins to physically abuse her. The abuse turns into an attempt at rape. Dot recognizes what is going on upstairs, stops playing piano (although the sonata plays on), and heads upstairs. The music finally stops when Dot uses a piano wire to strangle Paul to death, screaming at him to leave Nina alone. All the while, Olivia remains downstairs staring at the news in a pill-induced stupor. The eerie silence is only broken when Paul's body hits the ground and Nina starts screaming and cursing at Dot. Olivia comes upstairs and her only comment on being faced with Paul's body is to tell Dot that it's a miracle that she can hear.
The two girls go to the Spring Fling dance where Dot dances with Connor, then reveals to him that she is able to hear and talk. Connor calls her a psycho and then storms away. Then both girls bury the backpack with Nina's dress, covered in her father's blood, inside it. At this point, Nina questions Dot about pretending to be deaf and mute. Dot reveals that she wanted to be closer to her father so she wouldn't be alone. When the girls return home, Olivia has turned herself into the police and claims that she, not Dot, killed Paul in order to protect her daughter and atone for allowing the abuse. The film ends on an uncertain note as the two girls play piano together, free from their fathers.
Cast
- Camilla BelleCamilla BelleCamilla Belle is an American actress. Her works include The Lost World: Jurassic Park, When a Stranger Calls, 10,000 BC, The Quiet, Push and Speedy Singhs.- Early life :...
as Dot - Elisha CuthbertElisha CuthbertElisha Ann Cuthbert is a Canadian film and television actress. Cuthbert is known as the former co-host of the Canadian children's television series Popular Mechanics for Kids. In 1998, she had her first film role in Airspeed. She followed this in 2003 with a role in Old School...
as Nina Deer - Martin DonovanMartin DonovanMartin Donovan is an American stage and film actor. He has had a long collaboration with the director Hal Hartley, appearing in many of his films, including Trust , Surviving Desire , Simple Men , Flirt , Amateur , and The Book of Life...
as Paul Deer - Edie FalcoEdie FalcoEdith "Edie" Falco is an American television, film and stage actress, known for her roles in Oz as Diane Wittlesey, as Carmela Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos, and as the titular character on the Showtime series Nurse Jackie...
as Olivia Deer - Shawn AshmoreShawn AshmoreShawn Robert Ashmore is a Canadian film and television actor, perhaps best known for his role as Jake in the Animorphs television series and Iceman in the X-Men films. He is the twin brother of actor Aaron Ashmore.-Early life:...
as Connor Kennedy - Katy MixonKaty MixonKaty Elizabeth Mixon is an American actress. She is best known for her role as April Buchanon on HBO's Eastbound & Down and Victoria Flynn on the CBS television series Mike and Molly.-Life and career:...
as Michelle Fell - David GallagherDavid GallagherDavid Lee Gallagher is an American actor. Beginning a prolific career as a child actor and model at the age of two, Gallagher is a five-time Young Artist Award nominee and Teen Choice Award winner, best known for his role as Simon Camden on the long running television series 7th Heaven, as well as...
as Brian - Shannon Marie WoodwardShannon Marie WoodwardShannon Woodward is an American actress known for playing Sabrina on Raising Hope and Di Di Malloy on The Riches.-Personal life:...
as Fiona - Maria Cash as Mrs. Feltswatter
- Steve Uzzell as Mr. Piln
Production
After appearing in The Girl Next Door, Cuthbert wanted to "not just ... play the hot girl in the movie, it kills me." She had just finished the House of WaxHouse of Wax (2005 film)
House of Wax is a 2005 horror film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. It shares the name of a 1953 horror film, which was a remake of the 1933 film Mystery of the Wax Museum. It was released in theaters on May 6, 2005 to negative reviews, but a financial success...
and "was ready to do something that was definitely more character-driven." She read the Sundance workshop script by writers Abdi Nazemian and Micah Shraft, who had not previously made a feature film, and became an associate producer for the film, originally to be titled Dot.
Cuthbert initially wanted to play role of the silent Dot, but director Jamie Babbit instead cast Belle in that part after Thora Birch
Thora Birch
Thora Birch is an American actress. She was a child actor in the 1990s, starring in movies such as All I Want for Christmas , Patriot Games , Hocus Pocus , Now and Then , and Alaska . She came to prominence in 1999 after earning worldwide attention and praise for her performance in American Beauty...
pulled out. Babbit reasoned that "To me, Dot has to be someone you could believe would be invisible in high school. You look at Elisha, this beautiful woman with the most perfect body you've ever seen, and you think, there's no high school in America where this girl could be invisible. No matter how much hair and makeup I do, it's not going to happen." Cuthbert agreed, saying that "When I made another pass through [the script], I specifically zeroed in on Nina, going holy cow, this girl is dealing with even more stuff. The layers there exceeded, in my opinion, Dot's character and her issues... now watching it, thank God for Jamie." Belle's role as Dot was a departure from previous roles and the film was released around the same time as two other indie films starring Belle, The Ballad of Jack and Rose
The Ballad of Jack and Rose
The Ballad of Jack and Rose is a 2005 drama film written and directed by Rebecca Miller, and starring her husband Daniel Day-Lewis; it also stars Camilla Belle, Catherine Keener, Paul Dano, Ryan McDonald, Jason Lee, Jena Malone, Susanna Thompson and Beau Bridges...
and The Chumscrubber
The Chumscrubber
The Chumscrubber is a 2005 dark comedy film directed by Arie Posin and written by Posin and Zac Stanford, starring an ensemble cast. The film focuses on the lack of communication between teenagers and their parents, and the prevalence of prescription drugs in American society...
. Belle learned sign language
Sign language
A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's...
and classical piano for the role, and wore no makeup for the part. She said of her part that "It was a lonely time 'cause she is a very lonely, depressing character." Cuthbert said that acting her part was complicated by Belle "not doing a whole lot in the movie, as far as dialogue goes — it was difficult, because we had to find the right timing and the beats."
The actors were brought together before filming commenced to go through ideas relating to the film, in order that they were familiar with the long-term situation of the characters. Cuthbert spoke to psychiatrists about sexual abuse, and the cast read articles about women who had been sexually abused. The scene where Nina's father Paul attacks her was difficult to film, because Cuthbert was genuinely hurt by Donovan, who was "very method
Method acting
Method acting is a phrase that loosely refers to a family of techniques used by actors to create in themselves the thoughts and emotions of their characters, so as to develop lifelike performances...
" during filming, and Babbit was caught between wanting to protect her and the need for Cuthbert "to go to a scary place". Cuthbert said that playing a victim was hard for her, and that "there were moments when I would go to the bathroom and bawl."
The film was shot during September and October 2004, was directed by Jamie Babbit
Jamie Babbit
Jamie Babbit is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. She directed the films But I'm a Cheerleader, The Quiet and Itty Bitty Titty Committee. She has also directed episodes of television programs including Gilmore Girls, Malcolm in the Middle, United States of Tara, Nip/Tuck and...
, and was produced by the University of Texas' Burnt Orange productions as their first feature. It was made for about $1 million, funded by the University of Texas Film Institute
University of Texas at Austin Department of Radio-Television-Film
The Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin located in Austin, Texas, is one of the five departments comprising the College of Communication...
. Although the film is set in suburban Connecticut, Bowie High School
Bowie High School (Austin, Texas)
James Bowie High School is a public high school in southwest Austin, Texas. With an estimated student body of 3,000, and a campus sitting on , Bowie is the largest school in the Austin Independent School District and also the largest secondary school in Central Texas...
in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
was the principal filming location. 36 University of Texas students worked on the film.
The film was shot in high-definition video
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
. Variety said that "[director of photography] M. David Mullen
M. David Mullen
David Mullen, A.S.C. is an eminent Japanese born cinematographer famed for his photography on Twin Falls Idaho, Northfork, Akeelah and the Bee and The Astronaut Farmer...
's high-definition, widescreen camerawork supplies a lucid, moody look, matched by Jeff Rona
Jeff Rona
Jeffrey Carl “Jeff” Rona is an American composer for film. He was a member of Hans Zimmer's Media Ventures. His credits include Sharkwater, Slow Burn and Whisper.-Biography:...
's brooding score." MSNBC noted that "Every frame of The Quiet, with its overly styled blue-gray tint and hazy interiors, calls to mind 9½ Weeks
9½ Weeks
9½ Weeks is a 1986 erotic drama film directed by Adrian Lyne and starring Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger. It is based on the novel of the same name by Elizabeth McNeill....
, Fatal Attraction
Fatal Attraction
Fatal Attraction is a 1987 American thriller blended with horror, directed by Adrian Lyne and stars Michael Douglas, Glenn Close and Anne Archer. The film centers around a married man who has a weekend affair with a woman who refuses to allow it to end, resulting in emotional blackmail, stalking...
or Unfaithful." Metroactive saw that "the purplish blues (the color that seems to work best in HD) are deeply saturated for such a cost-effective medium, and the color is never milky or streaky. At times, Mullen and Babbit overdo the murk." IndieWire agreed, noting that the "use of smoke to mask the use of high-def video ... results in laughably inexplicable smoky interiors lit like a high school production of Les Miserables." SFStation argued that Babbit effectively exaggerated the limitations of the budget and using HD video: "the video artifacts, lighting, night-time shooting, and sparse sets end up creating an oneiric, fairy-tale quality that helps to balances out the undercurrent of violence that permeates the characters’ actions."
Release
The film premièred at the Toronto International Film FestivalToronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
in September 2005, but initially failed to find a distributor. It was released in cinemas by Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics is an art-house film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded in December 1991 that distributes, produces and acquires specialty films from the United States and around the world. Its co-presidents are Michael Barker and Tom Bernard...
, first in New York and Los Angeles on 25 August 2006, then on 300 screens across the US on 1 September 2006.
The film was released on DVD on 13 February 2007, with special features including “Fetal Pig, Fetal Pig, Let Me In”, a featurette on the dissection scene, “On Location: Shooting in Austin”, “Sans Celluloid: The Quiet and the Digital Camera", a script development featurette, and cast selection.
Reception
The film was not generally well-received by critics. On the review aggregator Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, 22 percent of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 90 reviews. On Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, the film had an average score of 29 out of 100, based on 24 reviews. Jeanne Aufmuth of Palo Alto Weekly
Palo Alto Weekly
The Palo Alto Weekly is a weekly community newspaper in Palo Alto, California, owned by Embarcadero Media. It serves Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, Stanford, East Palo Alto and Los Altos Hills....
called it "pretentious and pointless," Laura Clifford of Reeling Reviews said, "Good grief," Michael Booth of The Denver Post
The Denver Post
-Ownership:The Post is the flagship newspaper of MediaNews Group Inc., founded in 1983 by William Dean Singleton and Richard Scudder. MediaNews is today one of the nation's largest newspaper chains, publisher of 61 daily newspapers and more than 120 non-daily publications in 13 states. MediaNews...
said, "Sometimes a movie is so repulsive and devoid of redeeming material that afterward, you're certain it doesn't deserve to exist," Entertainment Weekly saw it as "dank and rhythmless," and The New York Daily News called it "a screamingly bad melodrama." The Seattle Times summed it up as "bordering on camp and loaded with lesbian undertones, this wretched drama plays like a high-school horror flick that trades monsters and mayhem for an overdose of force-fed cruelty."
Among critics who gave the film positive reviews, Josh Bell of Las Vegas Weekly
Las Vegas Weekly
Las Vegas Weekly is a free alternative weekly newspaper based in Henderson, Nevada, covering Las Vegas arts, entertainment, culture and news. Las Vegas Weekly is published by Greenspun Media Group. The paper was founded in 1992 by James Reza as a free monthly publication called Scope covering...
said, "Forget Snakes on a Plane
Snakes on a Plane
Snakes on a Plane is a 2006 American horror-action-thriller film directed by David R. Ellis and starring Samuel L. Jackson. It was released by New Line Cinema on August 18, 2006 in North America...
— The Quiet is the new camp classic of the summer." In contrast, Andrea Chase of Killer Movie Reviews called it "a disturbing drama that is as riveting to watch as it is challenging to contemplate." MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
called it a "a powerful tale of seclusion, sexual abuse and sisterhood." The Monitor believed that "underappreciated at the box office, this film is, excuse the pun, quietly powerful." Patrick Luce of Monsters & Critics called it "a slow-burn thriller that keeps the audience hooked ... thanks to a disturbing plot and solid performances from its cast."
The inconsistency of the film was highlighted by many critics. David Rooney of Variety found that it "seems unsure whether to push for suburban-Gothic psychosexual excess or tongue-in-cheek malevolence ... the film is derailed by its own silliness," while Christy Lemire of MSBNC complained that "Not a single moment feels believable in the film, which is trying very hard to be a sexy, intense psychological thriller but instead just feels lurid and exploitative." Andrew O'Hehir of Salon said that it was "a sleazoid TV movie of the week tarted up in art-school clothes" and that it "wobbles around between genres, a terrible example of what can happen when the wrong sets of talented people get together. It isn't convincing as talky psychological realism or as high-school satire or as ghoulish forbidden melodrama, although Belle and Cuthbert have their best and creepiest moments in that mode." Canoe said it "seems to be utterly clueless about what it actually wants to say." SFStation said that "Babbit, Nazemian and Schraft simply can't decide if they want The Quiet to be regarded as serious drama, social satire, or black comedy."
The writing was subject to frequent criticism. Metroactive felt that "The role [of Olivia, Nina's mother] is savagely underwritten, leaving [Edie] Falco dangling, motiveless, for much of the movie"; Monsters & Critics also felt that "at times her character seems like more of an after thought than having any real purpose." IndieWire also felt that the characters of Dot and Nina were underwritten, and Empire Movies similarly decried the "blatant under-use of two talented young actresses." Filmcritic.com noted that "Cuthbert has to do what she can with a script that sends her character ping-ponging between damaged, vulnerable victim and Heathers-esque school-dominating bitch." The Houston Chronicle criticised the film for "utterly failing its characters." Deseret News said it had "an awful script that features some howlingly bad dialogue," and Canoe concurred: "If the subject matter was not so damn' depressing, this dialogue would be camp-style laughable."
Dot's voice over was widely criticised. Metroactive was disappointed that "unlike [Holly] Hunter in The Piano
The Piano
The Piano is a 1993 New Zealand drama film about a mute pianist and her daughter, set during the mid-19th century in a rainy, muddy frontier backwater on the west coast of New Zealand. The film was written and directed by Jane Campion, and stars Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, and Anna Paquin...
, Belle isn't allowed to signal her emotions with music and expression alone. Instead, she mentally addresses the audience with continuous interior yammer." Empire Movies wondered "why not show people talking and holding conversations in the halls one minute then through Dot’s eyes (from her perspective) render the remainder of the scene in complete and perfect silence? ... The narration in The Quiet grows less and less essential as the film progresses to the point where it’s actually intrusive and unnecessary in the last few instances." Salon wryly noted that "Arguably, any movie with this much narration is in trouble to begin with, whether the narrator is deaf, blind or a walrus from Neptune." IndieWire called the voiceover "inane"; Filmcritic called it "maudlin."
Views of the acting of the two leads were often positive. The Daily Californian conceded that "Despite the plot's failings, Cuthbert does a convincing job in her role, exuding an outer shell so tough that when her inner, softer layers emerge, it's a natural change of character." Empire Movies agreed, commenting that "this is Elisha Cuthbert's best film performance to date. Cuthbert's Nina has the majority of the most graphic and disturbing dialogue in the film, especially during one particular lunchroom scene where the camera is close up on Cuthbert and Belle's faces." Metroactive also noted that "Belle nearly carries The Quiet in her close-ups." SFStation agreed that "performance wise, The Quiet belongs to Camilla Belle and Elisha Cuthbert," noting that "Belle ... has to act through body language and facial expressions [and] mostly carries it off, but even a talented actress can only do so much with such a passive role ... Cuthbert acquits herself well in the more active, substantive role (again, for the most part), but her performance is undermined by the questionable decision to put her character in skimpy clothing." However, Ruthe Stein of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
dissented, arguing that "Cuthbert flounces around a lot but doesn't have the range to express Nina's feelings." Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe said of Belle that "on screen she's hollow. The film is already visually dead, and it dies a little more whenever she's alone in a scene, which is often."
Some critics recognised lesbian undertones to the relationship between Nina and Dot.
Comparisons
The film was compared to Babbit's earlier work But I'm a CheerleaderBut I'm a Cheerleader
But I'm a Cheerleader is a 1999 satirical romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, an apparently happy heterosexual high school cheerleader...
, Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
asking "what is it with Babbit and the pom-pom girls?" Variety also noted that "Belle and Cuthbert provide more-than-adequate echoes of the Thora Birch
Thora Birch
Thora Birch is an American actress. She was a child actor in the 1990s, starring in movies such as All I Want for Christmas , Patriot Games , Hocus Pocus , Now and Then , and Alaska . She came to prominence in 1999 after earning worldwide attention and praise for her performance in American Beauty...
-Mena Suvari
Mena Suvari
Mena Alexandra Suvari is an American actress, fashion designer, and model. Shortly after beginning her career as a model, she appeared in guest roles on 1990's television shows such as Boy Meets World and High Incident...
dynamic" from American Beauty
American Beauty (film)
American Beauty is a 1999 American drama film directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester Burnham, a middle-aged magazine writer who has a midlife crisis when he becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend, Angela...
. Lauren Kaminsky of IndieWire negatively compared it to the same film, arguing that "this film somehow manages to surpass even American Beauty (to which the filmmakers no doubt hope their effort will be compared) in hateful representations of women, dopily sympathetic men, and heaps of misplaced misogyny."
IndieWire said that "like Hunter Richards's similarly awful London
London (2005 film)
London is a 2006 romantic drama film centering on a Manhattan party. The movie is directed and written by Hunter Richards, his first. It stars Jessica Biel, Chris Evans, Jason Statham, Joy Bryant, and Lina Esco.-Plot:...
, The Quiet is the sort of pretentious indie posturing that (poorly) attempts to disguise lousy writing with misguidedly busy, self-important filmmaking. The Columbus Dispatch
The Columbus Dispatch
The Columbus Dispatch is a daily newspaper based in Columbus, Ohio. Its first issue was published on July 1, 1871, and has been the only mainstream daily newspaper in the city since The Columbus Citizen-Journal stopped printing in 1985....
believed that it "is so loaded with sensationalism that it might have been intended as a black satire in the style of Heathers
Heathers
Heathers is a 1989 black comedy film starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and Shannen Doherty. The film portrays four girls in a trend-setting clique at a fictional Ohio high school...
[but it is treated with] severe seriousness, like a Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
potboiler for the Internet generation." The New York Times said that the film lacked the "go-for-broke lunacy that makes a flick like Wild Things
Wild Things
Wild Things is a 1998 erotic thriller film starring Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell, Kevin Bacon, Denise Richards, Theresa Russell and Bill Murray. It was directed by John McNaughton. In some countries the film was released as Sex Crimes...
a classic of its trashy kind and might have saved this film." The Houston Chronicle labelled it "Mean Girls
Mean Girls
Mean Girls is a 2004 American teen comedy-drama film directed by Mark Waters. The screenplay was written by Tina Fey and is based in part on the non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman, which describes how female high school social cliques operate and the effect they can have...
without the satire and with more grating extremes," while Filmcritic.com said "it comes off as simply amateur comedy -Pretty Persuasion
Pretty Persuasion
Pretty Persuasion is a 2005 American black comedy/satirical film about a 15-year-old schoolgirl who makes an allegation of sexual harassment against her drama teacher. The film's tagline is: "Revenge knows no mercy." It was written by Skander Halim and directed by Marcos Siega...
without the guts."
External links
- Interviews with Elisha Cuthbert, Jamie Babbit, Martin Donovan, and the theatrical trailer on Spike.com
- Clips from the film on Spike.com: http://www.spike.com/video/quiet-footsie/2754933http://www.spike.com/video/quiet-never-having/2755664http://www.spike.com/video/quiet-at-movie/2755665http://www.spike.com/video/quiet-laying-at-pool/2755666http://www.spike.com/video/quiet-pig-dissection/2755663