Populated with incestuous and tranquilizer-addicted parents, unspeakably vicious (albeit Playboy-Bunny class) teenagers, and a catatonic deaf-mute, who communicates by playing Beethoven on the piano, "The Quiet" may or may not hold you, make you titter and gasp, but it will definitely introduce you to some outstanding young talent, beginning with the director.

Jamie Babbit, with lots of TV episodes and the 1999 "But I'm a Cheerleader" under her belt, has come up with intriguing, bold, well-made film, lacking only in post-viewing glow (see below). Her even younger actresses are nothing short of spectacular. In the center: Camilla Belle, as Dot, the deaf-mute orphan, who ends up in a mighty peculiar household, turned on its ears regularly by its resident and reigning teen, the cute-and-deadly Nina, played by Elisha Cuthbert.

Belle, a Twenty-Something veteran of twenty-something years' acting (having made her first commercial at the tender age of nine months), has an impossible task: she has to hold center stage, in constant close-ups, looking blank and bland and shut off from the world. There is no emotion more difficult to convey than the complete lack of (visible) emotions, and Belle makes a splendid run at it.

Cuthbert's task is daunting too: her role is that of both a victim and a perpetrator, a character both sympathetic and repulsive. In the lead of a large and fine cast - including Edie Falco, Katy Mixon, Martin Donovan, and Shawn Ashmore - Cuthbert and Belle make "The Quiet" work.

So, what was meant above by lack of that cozy glow characterizing the exit from a "good movie"? "The Quiet," however much it may hold you through most of the story, will leave you at the end stunned by the realization: you have just wasted 96 precious minutes of your presumably not unlimited lifespan. Seldom have I seen such a collective expression of "what the hell?" at a screening as when the credits started rolling for this one. Others went further, repeating the punch line of those recent lively Volkswagen TV ads, featuring crunchy collisions: "holy sh..!"

Still, if the "end result" is not of great importance to you, "The Quiet" may just be the ticket for a lonely Saturday night, although definitely not as a date movie. For men, it's a major turnoff vis a vis young women; for women, it may cause lasting incertitude about men, old (especially) and young.

Janos Gereben

Related links:
IMDB: The Quiet (2006)