A bit Silly, but Entertaining and Intense

Rating: 7/10 (13 April 2018)

John Krasinski (you know him as Jim from The Office) stars alongside his real-life wife, Emily Blunt, in a horror-thriller that Krasinski also directs.
Husband and wife, Lee and Evelyn (Krasinski and Blunt) along with their children, struggle to remain safe and silent after mysterious creatures invade Earth, causing severe destruction and death. Through news reports and personal research, Lee discovers that the creatures are blind but have powerful hearing and attack any noise louder than a soft whisper.
Fortunately, Lee and Evelyn have a deaf daughter (a spectacular Millicent Simmonds), so the entire family knows sign language and can use that to communicate in complete silence. We witness the family do their best to get by in this challenging new world, despite the constant threat of the creatures and a strain in the family caused by an avoidable tragedy.
Sitting through a completely silent theater for extended sequences is strange and unnerving. The sound of someone rustling in a seat or munching popcorn too loudly becomes alarming. Further, the family strife storyline is compelling enough to stand on its own, which is practically unheard of for a horror movie.
With this combination of an original horror concept and an affecting family story, this movie could approach a masterpiece. But that's not quite what I experienced.
It's sillier than I expected. I have a tremendous threshold for my suspension of disbelief, but this one tested me.
Frankly, I didn't find the monsters terrifying. I found them ridiculous. They were much scarier to me when I didn't know exactly what they looked like. Keeping them mysterious made them far more frightening.
I walked away from the movie with unanswered questions. Do the creatures ever eat people? It doesn't appear that way, so what do they eat?
Why do they attack sound? I considered, perhaps, that loud sounds hurt their ears, so they attack loud noises to stop the pain. But they could just as easily run from the loud sounds, so this theory doesn't totally make sense.
I also took issue with the fact that they seemed somewhat easy to kill. If that's the case why did it take over a year to kill three of these things? It doesn't quite add up. I get the sense that if we pull the thread, the whole thing may unravel. Several odd decisions that the characters make or the writers made likely would not hold up under further scrutiny.
Nevertheless, the good outweighs the bad.
Emily Blunt's silent acting is breathtaking. She's stunning in this movie, and the two kids are also impressive. Noah Jupe has been in two other movies recently, one abysmal (Suburbicon) and one decent (Wonder). Although he was tremendous in all three, he's now finally a part of a legitimately good movie.
John Krasinski does a fine job directing a challenging movie. Capturing the emotion and suspense and terror all in complete silence is occasionally spectacular. Though, I'm not sure I prefer something like this. Complete silence in an empty theater is fine for a moment or two, but it loses its appeal very quickly. I want my scary movie crowds to be rowdy.
Perhaps this movie would be better experienced at home in a silent house. The silence would likely play better in that environment.

Clearly, I'm picking knits. People like this movie, and I did too. It's entertaining, heartfelt and worth a watch in any setting.