Film Review: A Quiet Place - Day One

 

Sexuality/Nudity Acceptable

Violence Mature

Vulgarity Mature

Anti-Catholic Philosophy Mature

The biggest problem with A Quiet Place: Day One is that even though it is good, it suffers in comparisson to the first one.

This prequel takes place on the day of the alien invasion that destroys human civilization by the sound-hunting creatures from the previous films.  The movie centers on Samira (Lupita Nyong'o), a woman dying of cancer in a hospice.  She reluctantly takes a field trip to New York City in order to get a slice of pizza before she dies.  But then the invasion occurs.  The rest of the movie involves avoiding th monsters.  Along the way Samira comes across Eric (Joseph Quinn), a British law student who clings to her as she makes her way up North to Harlem for that last slice of pizza.  

The movie gets a lot of things right.  If you are looking for a movie with some fun thrills and some enjoyable tension, then this movie will hit the spot.  The performances are also excellent.  Nyong'o and Quinn are able to non-verbally convey the terror and rage at the situation in a way that draw you in.  Writer/Director Michael Sarnoski is able to adequetly adjust the series rural enviornments for the claustrophobic crowds of the city.  As this is Day One, it is intersting to watch the people slowly figure out how to survive.  There are also fun moments where you, as the audience, can see the sound levels getting too high without the characters realizing the danger they are in.  

The movie has two difficulties.

The first is the one mentioned at the beginning of the review.  The original film is primal in the way it approached its horror and its themes.  It struck a chord in a way few modern movies do.  This one tries to hit similar depths with its mediation on life and death with Samira's illness, but it doesn't land in the same way.  

The second involves the writing of the characters.  There was so little dialogue in the first, that the family had to be defined by their actions.  This embodied the power of the classic principle "Show, dont' tell."  But this movie begins with our charcters speaking and it feels like the writers try to get as much exposition in as possible before the silence begins.  At the beginning Samira is a mean person.  We know this not only from a mean poem she writes, but she explicitly says, "I'm a mean person."  

The character development also has issues becuase of the structure.  Eric doesn't come into the movie until about half-way through.  The actors do their best to make their connection strong, but it feels very thin.  Quinn's main job as a performer is to look terrified the entire time.  While that may make us empathetic, it doesn't give us much depth.  That isn't to say that he is a one-note coward.  We see him find his courage as he bonds to Samira.  And Nyong'o does the best she can moving through her stages of grief to acceptance, but again it feels like they could have dug a little deeper.  

Another reviewer noted that unlike the first film, we see the monsters much more clearly from the beginning.  As in the Alien franchise, the creatures are much scarier when they are shrouded in mystery.  

There are a number of nice subtle spiritual moments.  The main characters find themselves at one point in a church.  Even in the midst of this catastrophe, we can see a number of people bowing their heads in prayer.  The church also acts as a sanctuary and a place where our charcters come to realize what they are willing to risk for each other.  The other is that there is a very subtle allusion to David and Jonathan from the Bible, who exchange clothes as a sign of their friendship.  One of the most powerful non-verbal moments for me was how the two main characters clothe each other in their own garb as a way to pass on a part of each other.  I wouldn't say the movie is super Christian or pro-life, but there are some nice moments like these that are sticking with me.

If A Quiet Place: Day One had been the first in the franchise, it would still not be as good as the original.  But the comparisson does dim this movie's luster.  But taken for what it is, outside of its comparrison to the original, it is an enjoyable sci-fi thriller.