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Quiet, The
Sony Pictures Classics


8.1

based on 24 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 50 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

But I'm A Cheerleader

MPAA RATING: R for strong and disturbing sexual content, a scene of violence, language, drug content and brief nudity

Starring Camilla Belle, Elisha Cuthbert, Edie Falco, Shawn Ashmore, Martin Donovan, Katy Mixon, Shannon Marie Woodward, and Bruce Hayes

Popular cheerleader Nina Deer's (Cuthbert) world is turned upside down when her parents (Falco and Donovan) adopt a recently orphaned deaf girl, Dot (Belle). But in this suburban home, things are not what they seem. Dot's arrival puts a crack in Nina's idyllic social life and the dark secrets her family harbors soon become exposed. (Sony Pictures Classics)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Abdi Nazemian Micah Schraft
DIRECTED BY:	Jamie Babbit
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 13, 2007 Theatrical: August 25, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	91 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Overall this is a compelling and sometimes disturbing motion picture.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

You still marvel at the visuals -- cinematographer M. David Mullen has done miracles with what must have been a microscopic budget -- but you're less invested in the tale. Which is a pity, because it might have been a perfect little potboiler. As it stands, it's merely pretty darned good of its type.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

The few effective scenes in The Quiet suggest that the film might have worked as a kinked-up Hitchcockian thriller rather than the drab, serious drama it turns out to be.

TV Guide Ken Fox

An unconvincing and uninvolving psychological thriller.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Babbit is skilled at creating atmosphere and mood, all of it creepy or sodden, and actresses Elisha Cuthbert and Camilla Belle put their hearts into their roles, which are, unfortunately, encased in a sleazoid TV movie of the week tarted up in art-school clothes.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

This ludicrously plotted drama of incestuous sexual abuse is only partially redeemed by its strong performances.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

Thematically the movie never reaches beyond the ready-for-prime-time mentality that specializes in psychological shorthand.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

Perhaps future generations of film scholars will embrace The Quiet as a B-movie that problematizes the oppressive gaze, but for now, it's a misfire.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

A screamingly bad melodrama whose message seems to be that people who think they're talking to a deaf person admit things they wouldn't admit to themselves. Silence, please.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Characters already too wicked to be credible start doing stuff simply too stupid to be believed, with no help from a cast way too overmatched to be useful.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Trapped between edgy art flick and exploitation psychothriller, The Quiet manages to be neither, and manages to be pretty awful in the bargain.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Creepy, creepy, creepy -- and not in a good way.

Los Angeles Times Mark Olsen

It never quite settles on whether it's a "Mean Girls" burlesque of teen life, an "American Beauty"-style bad-things-in-the-suburbs drama, or a wayward horror film. And it certainly never reconciles itself to successfully pulling off a hybrid of the three.

Film Threat Phil Hall

The Quiet is best for cheap laughs by jaded moviegoers with absolutely nothing better to do with their time.

Variety David Rooney

A Lifetime movie on crack, The Quiet dredges up every lurid cliche from the well of teen hormonal havoc in a tale of dysfunctional family meltdown that seems unsure whether to push for suburban-Gothic psychosexual excess or tongue-in-cheek malevolence.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Neither ambitious enough to take seriously nor sleazy enough to enjoy, The Quiet flirts with the trappings of exploitation cinema without going all the way.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A repugnant little indie black comedy, poorly acted in hideous-looking digital video, guaranteed to send audiences fleeing for the nearest shower.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

This dank and rhythmless ''psychological'' potboiler was directed by Jamie Babbit, who made 2000's "But I'm a Cheerleader," and though she has shifted tones from shrill camp to moody angst in The Quiet, she still thinks in stereotypes so thin that they put you to sleep the moment they open their mouths.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A movie of good intentions and awful results.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

The script drowns out its ideas with arch melodramatic devices and ridiculous twists while Babbitt smothers even the daylight scenes in an oppressive gloom.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Too confused to provide any thrills, even indecent ones.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

The desperation TV stars must feel to be on the big screen is the only explanation for Edie Falco and Elisha Cuthbert's appearance in The Quiet, a creepy family drama that reeks of pretentiousness.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Babbit clumsily underlines emotional moods.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

With its pathetic characters, questionable logic, and wall-to-wall Beethoven, the movie is a serious contender for this year's Golden Turkey award.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 50 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Nathan L. gave it a7:
Strong performances, the story was okay. But overall, better than I expected.

Scott M gave it an8:
I'm surprised. I usually agree with critics. This film is flawed, as a result of the micro-budget, but is rich and compelling, far more so than I expected. I was very impressed.

[Anonymous] gave it a3:
tried way too hard & just missed the mark, in my opinion. I kept checking my watch.

Chad S. gave it a5:
[***SPOILERS***] If Keenan Ivory Wayans turned his satirical eye on independent film, it might possibly look a lot like "The Quiet", a high school melodrama that brings to mind quite a few films with lofty pedigrees in the most bizarre hodgepodge imaginable. If your main character is deaf, and the soundtrack offers an interior dialogue, you're begging to be compared to "The Piano". And Dot(Camilla Belle) plays the piano! She and her surrogate family are often bathed in blue light as if they're underwater. In the Jane Campion film, Ada nearly drowns with her instrument. Another obvious allusion; the relationship between father(Martin Donovan) and daughter(Elisa Cuthbert; she's no Sarah Polley, but better than you'd imagine), which will stir memories of Atom Egoyan's "The Sweet Hereafter" for anybody who saw it(I was quietly hoping to see a school bus). In an almost "Heathers"-like high school melodrama, you can't get more disparate than those two films. "The Quiet" is not boring. This movie is going to be used for a drinking game when it hits the DVD market. Count on it.

Henry K. gave it a10:
The critics are really off on this one. It's a blast from start to finish. Thought provoking, dark, and very funny.

Caroline L. gave it a10:
Twisted and funny, a little of everything rolled into one, drama, comedy, thriller. Nice to see something different from all the usual stuff. And nice to see something about women directed by a woman.

Kens P. gave it a10:
a compelling and disturbing psychological mind bender.

Quiet, The Sony Pictures Classics

Quiet, The
Sony Pictures Classics