Thriller Elements, Drama and Characters All Expertly Crafted

Rating: 9/10 (9 April 2018)

I guess I was the odd man out in that I saw the trailers for A Quiet Place and it just didn't turn my crank. It seemed like an idea that would be tough to translate into a good movie, but the buzz was great for this and I ended up going to see it with a friend. What surprised me about A Quiet Place is how fully realized the concept was and that I couldn't find any obvious holes in the plot. Even movies I love don't always accomplish this and in a world where any form of moderate noise leads predators to you, I thought there would be the inevitable point where something would happen and I would be tempted to yell BULL$#!*. But that point never came, it just showed me the care they took in writing this script and how careful they were in making this movie work.
A Quiet Place has a plot that can be summed up quickly. Aliens have invaded and wiped out a large portion of humanity. They are essentially blind, but their sense of hearing is incredibly acute, and they can hear any noise over large distances. So, the Abbott family are trying to get along in the year 2020 and are trying to rebound off the loss of a loved one. But the focus isn't on the plot, its on the characters and I thought they did an excellent job building them into people you could feel for. Lee (John Krasinski) and Evelyn (Emily Blunt) are good parents that do an excellent job trying to protect their kids and maintain a loving relationship with them. Regan (Millicent Simmonds) is the oldest kid who's dealing with a lot and although she's a little temperamental, you can certainly understand why. The same goes for Marcus (Noah Jupe) who is trying to get over a traumatic experience and Lee is having trouble getting him to participate in the tricky life they lead. They get you to care about these characters and I thought the dramatic parts of A Quiet Place were very emotional. The loss, pain and fear the Abbott family faces is intense and there were more than a few times I got wrapped up in the "quiet" moments. This doesn't mean that there aren't big moments where things come to a head. My favourite was a scene where a couple of the characters are caught in a grain silo where there is no easy escape. So, you get the best of both worlds in A Quiet Place.
A dystopian future is pretty common now, we get post-apocalyptic movies and T.V. shows all the time so to get noticed, you have to do something new. Krasinski hasn't had a lot of experience directing but he and his team did a great job shooting this movie. The environment is simple in A Quiet Place, the Abbott family lives on a farm outside a small town but there wasn't a frame I didn't think the movie captured that setting beautifully. They use certain colours to convey danger and they use different parts of the farm to accent the peril of the Abbott family. Considering the low budget (approximately 17 million) they knew how to use it effectively.
If you follow movies or T.V. you're familiar with John Krasinski and Emily Blunt. They're both charismatic actors and they carry this movie. They excel as the protective and sensible parents and they had wonderful chemistry together (considering they're husband and wife in real life, not surprising). I also thought Millicent and Noah were solid for kid actors. They're victims of their characters but you genuinely care about their safety.
This movie completely lived up to the hype. John Krasinski completely pulled off pulling triple duty here and they crafted a white-knuckle tense thriller. I would warn that while there are horror elements, its not a horror movie. The aliens have a unique design that is terrifying, and the movie knows not to overplay its hand in showing them too many times. A Quiet Place is more thrilling than scary but that's okay. I'll be visiting A Quiet Place again and although I understand the Hollywood climate to churn out sequels on anything successful, this might be better served without a sequel. They ended it on the perfect note and I think this would be more effective as a solo outing. I'd give it an 8.5/10 rounding up to a 9/10. If you haven't seen A Quiet Place already, go check it out.