A Quiet Place - A Sorry Place

Rating: 5/10 (24 July 2018)

A quiet place is the story of a family's attempt to survive an alien invasion. If this sounds familiar it's because you've heard and seen this before. Thus, herein lies the first problem with the movie...it's been done before. No....its really, really been done before, so the first challenge for the movie is to give it characteristics that are different than other science fiction movies of the same genre. But before we get to that, I posit the belief that most good stories have a beginning, middle and an end. A good premise, plot and a destination. Some tricky clever twists and turns add value to the viewing pleasure of a movie but are not necessities for a basic film. They are however, essential for superior work. In any case, what I find is a necessary in a post-apocalyptic movie, is an explanation as to how we arrived at this condition. Particularly as pathetic a position in which we find ourselves in Quiet Place. The aliens in this case, have arrived and have been on earth for some time. Cities and towns have been decimated and people are scavenging for supplies. Mankind has lost the war, there is no hope for a future and the chances of survival hinge of mankind's silence. That's right. Mankind is relegated to an existence where he cannot talk and must move in silence lest he be ripped instantly and violently from the world of the living. He is required to walk barefoot and to plot every activity and literally every step he takes as to make no noise. Sorry, but this condition needs a point of reference. This condition needs some explaining which we never get. Not even an inkling. Just the same, the story moves forward with one man's family struggle to ward off the aliens which we all know will pick a few of them off as a result of careless acts or sacrifice.
With the exception of limited dialogue, the movie uses the same run, hide, keep quiet and peek out tactics of screenwriting in an effort to create suspense. Because screaming, crying and the yelling of profanity will alert the aliens, there is none of that written into this script, and we now know we miss that kind of stuff. In fact, it is safe to say that the absence of hysteria, hollering, pain, suffering and noise is clearly antithetical to the genre. Given this, the movie is thus limited (no crippled) in what it can do. A Quiet Place did have one suspenseful classic scene around a nail protruding out of a floor board. It was classic suspense, and it worked, and you wanted more of that even though it was somewhat clichÃ©. Even though you knew that someone would eventually step on it given all the bare feet running around, it had a Hitchcock sort of feel. It provided some classic suspense in an otherwise film full of prefabricated usual techniques where the boogie man is alerted and shows up on cue, and people die as prescribed.
The movie's plot is further implausible in that the mother of the family is with child, a pregnancy which appears to have occurred post invasion. This is an insult to the viewer. The anticipation of a crying child does not add to the suspense in this case, it is reflective of a desperate and poor script grasping at straws in attempt to write suspense into the film. As we approach the end of the film we are treated with the heroic act of a father who rescues two of his children from the aliens. But because he is somewhat responsible for putting them in those situations, or just inept in being able to keep them safe, it only seems fitting that he sacrifices his life for theirs.
The final scene places us in the basement of their home where the mother and two children and infant are hiding out, but who are now attracting aliens partly because mom stepped on the nail, but mostly because the kid is crying. The finish to this movie is probably the weakest part of all. The daughter has on a headset and suddenly realizes that it emits a frequency which cripples the alien and the mother blasts the alien with a shot gun which in actuality should alert more aliens. But instead of continuing the absurdity of the script, we are thankful that the movie ends here. There is more to the headset story, but quite frankly not enough to make the story more credible. Here is the deal, like "Jaws" is the only really good shark movie of its genre, "Alien" is the classic of the alien genre. We must implore producers, writers, screenplay guys etc., to do a better job. This cookie cutter way of production simply doesn't create a body of work to be proud of. Worst than that, it doesn't incentivize movie watchers to pay for movies. A Quiet Place takes us to a sorry place.