QUIET, THE - DVD review

I had my reservations about "The Quiet," which has "24" babe Elisha Cuthbert playing second fiddle to latest up and coming "It" girl Camilla Belle. However, after sitting through the film's opening act I was pleasantly surprised to find a film that captivates and entertains, despite a lackluster third act and not fully embracing its intriguing premise.

The film is a suspense thriller from director Jamie Babbit (director of "But I'm a Cheerleader"), where nearly everyone is hiding some deep dark secret or desire that they'd much rather suppress than deal with. The medium for much of this unspoken fervor is Dot (Belle), a deaf-mute girl, who's been taken in by her god parents, the Deer family, after the death of her father. As the film tells it, Dot's mother died when she was only seven years old, forever scarring the young girl and bringing on the condition which she is afflicted with.

Upon entering the ranks of the superficially well-to-do family, Dot (and the audience) starts to learn that there's more going on under the surface. Deer parents Paul (Martin Donovan) is an architect with some success, mom Olivia (Edie Falco) is an interior designer and daughter Nina (Cuthbert) is a high school senior, one of the most popular girls in school and on the cheerleading squad. But as the genre conventions require, conventional family roles may be in place but only to act as a mask for the more nefarious burdens that rest underneath. The home that Paul built for the family may look brilliant from the outside but for the most part remains incomplete on the inside. Everything is sparsely decorated and Olivia is barely off of her pain medication long enough to think about what needs to be fixed to get the house in order before she goes on popping a few more pills.

It's much to Dot's dismay that the burden falls on her shoulders as everyone around her feels the need to confess their sins to her. She quickly becomes the de facto counselor, taking in everybody's misdeeds because they all feel that by telling her they can get the guilt off of their shoulders, besides Dot's not going to tell, heck she can't even hear.

One of the far more despicable things placed onto Dot's unsuspecting ears, is the sexual relationship that has been going on between Nina and her father for some years now. The black and white line has been turned gray here, as neither Paul nor Nina appears to want to stop the relationship, though Nina's reason seems to win later as she confesses to Dot her intentions of killing her father.

Things unravel from there, with Nina's motivations wavering constantly. She's complex and not at ease with herself, which Cuthbert manages to handle expertly. Cuthbert lends her an air of subtle emotion never pushing or pulling to far in one direction. Belle also handles Dot with great ease, playing the girl as something of an ugly duckling, who emerges in the third act to make things work in ways that any intelligent viewer can surmise from the film's opening frames. Sadly, Edie Falco is put to little use in her role, though she is very effective with what she's been given.

The film isn't a great one but it is interesting and it is entertaining. The script by Abdi Nazemian and Micah Schraft is decent, evoking the various character complexities with deft handiwork, but it falters in the story department, with a third act that seems to leap out of nowhere. The film's biggest problem is the voice over narration from Dot, a braver, bolder and ultimately more challenging move would to have had none and let the image play up the suspense and her reactions. It's not entirely detrimental to the film but does keep it from rising up above genre conventions. Nevertheless, the film works as a character driven suspense film with some nice twists thrown for good measure.

Video
The film is presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer. The DVD looks great, with the high definition format really shining through. Cinematographer M. David Mullen's camera work comes through beautifully, with distinguished blue pallet permeating most of the film's running time. There is no grain, no ghosting or pixilation of any sort. The film looks solid and comes through brilliantly and is only hampered by the limitations of the HD format on which it was shot.

Audio
The DVD presents a number of audio options for this release. The 5.1 English soundtrack comes through with strength and clarity. It actually uses the surrounds to varying degrees, even for such a dialogue heavy film. This really adds to the film's tension, elevating it to a nice level through sound alone. Dialogue comes through clearly with absolutely no distortion anywhere. Also included are 5.1 Spanish mix and a French Dolby Surround. English, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Korean subtitles are also included.

Extras
The DVD also comes with a nice mix of bonus material despite the lack of a director's commentary. Included are "Fetal Pig, Fetal Pig, Let Me In: Dissecting the Dissection Scene" (4 minutes 50 seconds), which focuses on the dissection scene in the film, which is quite sparse, so it's a wonder why this extra was even included.

"Locations: Shooting in Austin" (7:25) takes a look at the on location sets used for filming. "Sans Celluloid: The Quiet and Digital Cinema" (4:30) offers some info about the strengths and weaknesses of shooting on digital. This is followed up by "Script Development" (9:30), a behind-the-scenes look at the evolution of the story from its initial inception to rewrites before production.

Closing out the featurettes is "Cast" (9:50), which has Babbit looking at her actors and discussing their work on the film with choice interview moments with selected members.

Lastly, ten trailers for various Sony Pictures Classics films are also included.

Film Value
"The Quiet" isn't an "I have to run out and see it now" kind of movie, it's an under the radar kind of movie that's not as great as it aspires to be nor as bad as you might assume. The film has some strong performances all around, particularly from Belle and Cuthbert – the film's two main attractions. It features some great surface level excitement, while churning out some intricate and moody underpinnings.