Perfect

Rating: 9/10 (4 August 2018)

I saw A Quiet Place a few weeks ago. I now own the Blu Ray version of the movie, as well as an incoming signed poster. Rarely do I purchase a film that soon after seeing it. But this time was different. A Quiet Place was an absolute stand-out, a phenomenal hit I can't recommend whole-heartedly enough. And watching it was a brilliant experience that makes me wish I'd paid the measely twenty bucks to see it in the cinema when I considered it back in April. Here's why:
A horror that doesn't rely on shock violence, graphic nudity or supernatural themes to coerce its' viewers into submission. Nope - A Quiet Place maintains an admirable zero-tolerance policy on gratuitous imagery, which instantly shoots it up a rung on my ladder. Still, it can't be denied that it earns its' M rating. As a reviewer and a film-maker, I exude affectionate praise over stories told using minimal yet suitable levels of mature content. Concerning violence, amount and kind should depend entirely on the tone of the story told. Jumping back to the topic, I'm overjoyed I can now recommend a horror/thriller that utilizes the genre in an inoffensive and indeed most excellent manner, that I'll go on to demonstrate. This movie makes a brilliant advance on style, splicing the best of "arty" with the best of the blockbuster format. It proves there's an intermediate - an emotionally, pictorially rich and yet also enthrallingly fantastic pitch-perfect alternative - which offers, to my mind, a tonic to the lazy typsetting often on display in theatres. My most cherished stories (and the majority of the populus) are generally the spectacular epics, with their gargantuan battles and sprawling sets - blockbusters, in HollyWood terms. To make such films involving the excitement of monsters and the unknown, without sacrificing the meaningfulness of the story (which too many now do), is to make a truely great film. This is one of those.
Let's talk about the cast of seven, only four of which occupy any really substantial screen time. In this, as in everything, A Quiet Place tends towards an economically minimalist approach, zeroing in on just a few solitary lives, investing our love and care in them, making their joys and fears our joys and fears. By way of comparison, Avengers: Infinity War's weakest link held fast as the production team subverted the worries of the fandom by mustering a supreme effort that united every proposed Marvel personality in a single action-packed extravaganza - yet it failed to capture the broad range of emotions, and the richness, we find in A Quiet Place's family of four. Instead of being inundated by a torrent of snarky quips, we are pleasantly surprised by a story of two people deeply in love, and whose children share a special bond of love. Why is this such a rarity? As a result of the family's solid values: we identify more closely with them; and the movie is truely heart-warming, though tragic. The husband-wife team behind this excellent production (director/actor John Krasinski and co-star Emily Blunt) deserve kudos for the integration of real-life aurally impaired Millicent Simmonds into the cast, drawing an incredible parallel to her role in the movie. Her chemistry with Noah Jupe is an absolute highlight for me.
It can't be omitted that the sound production is truely a marvel, bringing the visuals to life with brilliant success. Through the restrained use of audio, we as the audience are engaged in a far more emotionally heightened atmosphere. Certainly I'm no connoisseur of horror - but I can honestly say the jump-scares were real! By the end of the film, I felt a little as though I been through the ordeal of Dunkirk or Hacksaw Ridge, so tense and nail-biting an experience as it was.
There it is: I could hardly recommend A Quiet Place more. It completely avoids clichés (an original fear of mine), opting for completely original content, while drawing from great classics in the best of ways. I'm not afraid to tag such descriptions as "exceptional" and "perfect" to the movie, and all this is saying something, since I'm often a fairly harsh critic. This is one of those few movies that just throws me into a kind of movie ecstasy - a real indulgence for the movie-lover. It was unparalleled, and gives me no reason for any kind of displeasure - excepting, perhaps, its' run time, as we can't possibly get enough of entertainment like this!