Stressful

Rating: 8/10 (19 August 2019)

A QUIET PLACE
RATING: 3.9/5
Gotta admit, don't think I've been that stressed in a movie in a long time. It's a really slow burn though, as the film slowly builds up the tension. You're following a family that has been surviving in this world for almost a year and a half, so they're not gonna screw up unless something big and unexpected happens. Enter, the pregnant wife trying to give birth, that they've been showing in every trailer the studio has put out there, so it's not a spoiler. Once the movie gets to that point, it sticks with it to the bitter end. Things get intense, as the family just tries to survive this one childbirth. You really don't know where the movie's gonna go at that point, and that's one of the film's strengths. Every time i kept thinking it was over, damn thing would keep going. That monster was relentless, the smallest sounds would bring it over. It was a great movie monster, compared to everything we've had from Hollywood lately.
For the majority of the movie, it's kind of a "slice of life" film, as you're introduced to this family and how they live their day to day lives in this desolate world. It's great because you get a real sense of what it's like just living in this world, where making loud noises can get you killed, almost instantly. You start wondering if you could survive in that kinda world, it's actually done pretty well. The main issue for me is really with the family you're following; they end up being such ciphers, that they don't have any real depth to them. You get nothing more than surface level characteristics for each of them, which is fine to a degree, but they don't give you anything to really latch onto. The end result is that you end up feeling for the family and the terrifying situation they're in, but you don't really care that much for them individually.
I can't quite jump this movie to a 4, because i think there needed to be some real character development in it. Even if the director meant for the family to be blank slates, there's just too much time where nothing happens, for them not to get any kind of real character development. The last issue might be a nitpick, but the final shot feels completely out of place with the entire film. This movie has such a serious tone to it the whole time, but the last shot comes off as something out of a corny action movie. It just doesn't fit, and I think it was the wrong note to end on. The entire movie sets you up to feel one way, and then the ending takes a slight left, but it's just enough to make you feel like something is off. They could have done the same scene and just played it serious, like the rest of the movie, and it would have been great. Even so, i think this is a movie worth checking out, even if you just do a matinee.