Take your average rich white suburban family: Architect dad, interior designer mom, head cheerleader daughter. You don't have any original takes on these characters, and you don't have any real story to work with. What do you do? Here's an idea: Throw in an adopted disabled goddaughter. Not unique enough? Go ahead, put some of that pedophilia in. A little incest, a little murder, some substance abuse, some dark secrets. Now you have this (somewhat) original movie! Oh wait, someone else just did the same thing. It's called The Quiet.
The title, of course, literally refers to the mute character, but also figuratively the secrets in the family. There's something wrong with them, even though on the surface they look; well, actually they seem just as shallow and unlikable on the surface.
It's hard to understand what exactly The Quiet wants to be. As a drama, there's little to no emotional investment in any of the characters, so you really don't give a damn. As a dark comedy, there are too few jokes and it treats the characters' flaws too seriously to even be funny. As a suburban commentary, it's way too out there to even consider. Yes, bad things like sexual abuse happen in real life, but from looking at this sitcom family, you'd think it's something those kooky Hollywood people dreamed up.
Director Jamie Babbit -- who was a producer/director for the WB channel TV series Popular -- sprinkled the world with familiar high school archetypes: Our main character is the lone outcast Dot (Camille Belle), who even the outcasts outcast. Circling around her are the popular and bitchy cheerleader Nina (Elisha Cuthbert); Nina's skanky best friend Michelle (Katy Mixon); and the popular jock athlete Connor (Iceman, I mean, Shawn Ashmore), who falls for our outcast for no logical reason. Apparently giving them a disturbing twist is supposed to make them more interesting.
Wrong.
The dynamics between these characters are stale, something you can find even in the trashiest of teen drama (like, say, Popular). As if we need yet another "popular girl learning to befriend the freak" story.
The weak characters are made worse by weak performances. Edie Falco as the mother is worth a mention, but her role is too short to matter. Martin Donovan plays the heavy role of the father like a regular Joe. He's neither creepy nor sympathetic -- he's just whiny. Elisha Cuthbert plays the exact same role she did in The Girl Next Door. When she's not crying, she's seducing around in her underwear. I wish that was reason enough to see this film, but it's not. Unlike TGND, her role here is a meaty one, with serious moral issues. She didn't fit the role as well as she fit her bra. As for Camille Belle, she spends nearly the entire movie blankly staring into vacant space as Dot. Yes, she's mute. Yes, she's emo. No, it doesn't mean that she should act like a mannequin. It's hard to care for Dot when she's so apathetic.
That's unfortunate because the most interesting aspect of the film is how everyone takes advantage of Dot. Being deaf and mute, people treat her like a walking confessional booth. They pour their intimate secrets and desires to her, knowing that she won't know what they're saying. Even if she did, she can't tell them to anyone. It would have made a better movie to focus solely on Dot and her social status as a mute witness. Babbit didn't take this concept any deeper than it sounds. For the most part, Dot is just treated as an excuse for exposition, so other characters can speak what they're thinking without having to go into voiceovers. There's little to no reaction from Dot regarding being treated this way, which is a pretty lousy way of treating this somewhat cool scenario.
The Quiet is a cheap American Beauty knock-off. It wanted so badly to be the next slice of contemporary nightmare nuclear family, but instead of adopting American Beauty's witty dark humor and social satire, it just tries too hard to be disturbing by casually touching taboos. It comes off as, to be blunt, pathetic ("Look at the underage girl talking about nibbling on older men's nipples! Scintillating!"). These people are unlikable and a chore to watch, as opposed to being a believable dysfunctional family.
Then again, if you like trashy soap operas and gratuitous "disturbing sexual content", there might be something for you to enjoy.
"The Quiet" opens August 25, 2006 and is rated R. Drama. Directed by Jamie Babbit. Written by Abdi Nazemian, Micah Schraft. Starring Camilla Belle, Edie Falco, Elisha Cuthbert, Katy Mixon, Martin Donovan, Shawn Ashmore.
