A Quiet Place

Warning: This review contains spoilers for A Quiet Place.

It’s always interesting when actors become directors. Sometimes, they’re successful and make interesting, award-winning films like Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson, and George Clooney. Sometimes, they set records like when Elizabeth Banks directed Pitch Perfect 2 which earned 69 million dollars in its first weekend, the highest opening ever by a first time director. Other times, it becomes clear that maybe the actor should stay in front of the camera rather than behind it. Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Nicholas Cage each have exactly one directing credit to their names – and it’s probably one too many.  

In the case of John Krasinski, the guy who played Jim in TV’s The Office and the director of the sci-fi thriller, A Quiet Place, it’s clear he’s got the skills to be one of the successful ones for sure. A Quiet Place occurs after some kind of alien invasion where a race of super-fast, supremely deadly, seemingly indestructible creatures attack and immediately kill anything that makes sound. What I admire most about the film is its focus and discipline. Rather than a sprawling, cosmic, cast-of-thousands scale you might expect with an alien invasion, the story is tightly focused on one small family hiding out in upstate New York. There are only eight people in the entire film, and the whole thing plays much more like a compelling family drama than a special effects bonanza. I give credit to Krasinski who also rewrote the screenplay and increased the emphasis on the family relationships. 

In terms of its discipline, the film’s whole concept is that no one can make any noise, so everyone uses American Sign Language or whispers inaudibly with subtitles to help viewers. Often in American films that feature a foreign language, characters will speak a few lines in subtitled French or Russian and then inexplicably shift to English for the rest of the film. A Quiet Place does not cop out in this way, and the entire film is conducted in almost complete silence and diegetic sound. While there is a traditional musical score, which Krasinski has said he allowed to be added for the audience’s comfort, it’s relatively restrained. I admire that as a director, Krasinski was willing to take the risk and pay his audience of the compliment of doing something different and somewhat challenging.

A good director also tries to pick the best talent with which to work. The film looks great and uses its cinematography to effectively evoke dread, sadness, hope, and thrills. Cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen makes confident choices with the camera that had me engaged from the first shots.

Krasinski also cast talented actors, including his secret weapon, his wife Emily Blunt. Blunt reminds me of Kate Winslet in her range and believability. Action hero, seductress, fashion addict, or beleaguered mother, she makes audiences believe what she’s doing. 

My only real problem with the film was a narrative one. The final scenes reminded me a lot of M. Night Shyamalan’s 2002 film, Signs. The family discovers that the aliens don’t react well to their hearing impaired daughter’s cochlear implant. They use it as a sonic weapon to disable one of the creatures long enough to blow it apart with a shotgun. It was reminiscent of Signs’ deus ex machina moment in which we figure out that a race of aliens who hate water came to planet that’s 80% covered by water. I just found it a little hard to believe that no one on the entire planet thought to use a sonic weapon against creatures that are sensitive to sound.

Despite that one quibble, the film is excellent – confident, smart, and respectful of its audience. Rather than carefully explaining every single thing, it trusts its viewers to understand what’s going without a ton of obvious exposition. A Quiet Place is harrowing at times, tender at others. It’s perfectly paced, and I hope we will see other films this good from its director and star.