American born talented movie director and producer Jammie Babbit directed “The Quiet” movie and it was released world wide in 2006. It is a psychological thriller and drama genre movie which revolves around two teen school girls and the quest of their lives. Smart and beautiful actress Elisha Kurthbert and another brilliant actress Camilla Belle played the central characters in this movie.
Director Jammie Babbit directed a few short films before she started directing feature movies. Generally her movies are a bit unusual, innovative and they revolve around certain social crisis and problems. Her first movie “But I am a cheerleader” was a romantic comedy which revolved around a school girl and her troubled social life and problems and how she overcomes them. It was well received by the audience and won a few awards as well.
Later in 2005, she directed “The Quiet” which is a psychological thriller and family drama that revolves around a deaf and mute girl and her discovery about a dysfunctional family and their dark secrets. As a director Jammie Babbit did a superb job of executing the theme and story-line of this movie in an interesting and consequential way, and it is indeed worth watching.
MAIN CAST
• Elisha Cuthbert plays the role of Nina Deer (Only daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Deer, a cocky and pretty school-girl who is mentally disturbed and she has an awkward social life.) • Camilla Belle plays the role of Dot (A deaf and mute girl who lost her parents and came to live with her god-parents aka Deer’s family) • Martin Donovan plays the role of Paul Deer (Father of Nina, a famous and successful architect and he has a dysfunctional relation with his family members.) • Edie Falco plays the role of Olivia Deer (Wife of Paul Deer, kind and passionate lady who suffers from serious mental illness and she takes
high-doses of drugs all the time )
PLOT OUTLINE
This movie opens with the deaf and mute girl Dot she talks to herself in her mind; she is lonely as she has lost her parents. She came to live with her God-parents. She also goes to the same local school as Nina. Nina always bullies and insults Dot for no such reason.
Nina is the only daughter of Mr. And Mrs Deer, she is arrogant, rude and a mentally disturbed young girl. She is having an illegitimate and incestuous physical relationship with her father. Her mom Olivia knows about this but she is reluctant to deal with it and she always takes a high dose of medication to forget and avoid this disgusting little family problem.
So the story tells us how Dot and Nina become friends and share their feelings, and it tells us how Nina deals with her social life problems and how she deals with her father and gets her freedom. This movie has a very moving and thoughtful storyline which is accompanied with some superb performances by the lead characters.
PERSONAL THOUGHT
This movie has a very disturbing and distressing theme that deals with some taboo matters. Director J. Babbit did a fine job directing this movie; she focuses on this incestuous relationship between Paul and Nina nicely and also focuses on other associated matters as well. Despite some crude and really bold dialogues and some brief sexual reference, it is not a cheap soft-core erotica movie. It is a poignant movie with a storyline that deals with some dark and disgusting problems and secrets of a dysfunctional family in a suburban. This movie has a remarkable storyline that is presented well on-screen supported by some brilliant acting from both Elisha Cuthbert and Camilla Belle.
Dot is an orphan girl and she is disabled as well, she is deaf and mute and lives with the Deer family. She gradually discovers the disgusting and illegal physical relationship between Paul and Nina. Nina continuously bullies Dot and insults her for no such reason. Despite this Dot feels bad for Nina and always tries to help her. She always helps Nina and gives her support and comforts her. Dot likes her lab-partner Connor, a star basketball player in the school team. He has a learning disorder and Dot helps him in studying. Later they get closer and share a meaningful relationship.
~Dysfunctional mentality and behavior~
Nina Deer is really arrogant and rude and always insults Dot for no such reason, but in reality she is insecure and mentally disturbed. Her father Paul always abuses her; he is mentally sick and disgusting. He also knows that this is not right and immoral, but he is like a compulsive psychopath, and always abuses his own daughter. There is no way that can justify Paul’s immoral and disgusting behaviour. His wife Olivia knows about this dirty little secret of her family, but she always tries to avoid this matter and keeps herself distracted with heavy doses of medicine.
Nina has never had perfect parents, her mother never cares about her and always keeps her busy with interior design and unintentionally ignores her own daughter. Nina needs some sort of attention, affection and care from her family, but her mentally sick father abuses her daughter physically. Nina hates her father but at the same-time she also likes him, because she needs someone to care about her and looks after her regardless what price she has to pay for that. It’s like Nina also suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder, she knows that it’s bad and really disgusting to have an illegitimate relationship with Paul, but she could not help it. She is really alone and needs someone to share her feelings. She always tries to hide about this relationship from Dot.
Nina suffers from split-personality disorder, part of her really hates her dad, but other part really wants him. She wants her parents to care about her and look after her. She wants to escape from her dad’s continuous sexual abuse and harassment but she just can’t protest it properly. Every time she wants to avoid Paul and wants to have a normal social life, she just could not be strong enough to do something about it. She does the same mistake over and over and makes her life more miserable.
Nina always insults and bullies Dot, she always feels insecure that Paul may give more attention to that deaf and mute Dot. She just cannot stand this thought and always tries to insult her and make her leave the house. Nina suffers from major mood swings due to her guilt. She knows that
Pictures of The Quiet (DVD)
The movie poster.
Dot is also aware of her dirty secret relationship with Paul, but she pretends that Dot does not know anything about it and tries to act normal. She always suffers from depression and she has delusional thoughts and activities, she has this thought that she is fat and needs to lose weight. Nina’s mother Olivia is mainly responsible for her dysfunctional family; she tends to avoid her own daughter and tries to keep herself busy with interior design and all those high-dose pills. Not only that, Olivia also avoids her husband both physically and emotionally. As a result that sex-starved maniac father abuses his own daughter. In no way you can actually justify Paul’s deeds and behaviours, he is utterly sick and mentally disturbed and this is just wrong. Paul also realizes that he is sick and mentally unstable and confronts his sins and guilt to Dot.
As a child Nina never finds her mother by her side when she needs something, she is always absent and busy with her own world. Nina needs a friendly mother who can help her and understands and give her some company. Nina was all alone, stressed, depressed and mentally disturbed. In the main time, her father fulfills her needs and desires but in return she has to sleep with him.
Dot is really compassionate and a kind hearted girl, she really likes Nina and always tries to help her. When she gets to know about this dirty secret she tries her best to protect Nina. Eventually Nina realizes that Dot is a well-wisher and just wants good things for her. She becomes friend with Dot and shares her guilty conscience and she looks for freedom.
The Dialog is really bold and vulgar in this movie so it is not suitable for minors. There are some nudity and brief sexual reference in some scenes. MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) rated this movie as “R” for its hard language, sexual oriented brief nudities and some disturbing elements. In my personal opinion, this movie is not suitable for younger generation, as they may misinterpret the theme of the movie.
VIEWERS RECEPTION & IMDB RATING
This movie was received poorly by the movie critics and did not do well in box office. Though it has a moderate rating on IMDB (Online database which evaluates movies by the viewer’s reception and their ratings) 6.5/10 by more than six thousand viewers.
Movie Website: http://www.sonyclassics.com/thequiet/main.html Movie Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxfF7YQD6nA
FINAL THOUGHT AND RECOMMENDATION
‘The Quiet’ is not a movie that you would expect to watch intentionally. It is not one of those normal psychological thrillers with common mystery and surprising twists. This movie is far deeper and unpredictable. The storyline revolves in to a distinctive, disturbing and shocking way that you never would have guessed. It is a well directed movie with some excellent performances by the lead characters. I am really confused whether I recommend this movie or not. It is not a kind of movie you would enjoy watching, it leaves you thinking about strange human life and its dark secrets. Oh well, it’s not something that you would watch twice, so maybe give it a go.
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