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Quiet, The
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 24 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 50 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Abdi Nazemian
Micah Schraft
Directed by: Jamie Babbit
Release Date:
Theatrical: August 25, 2006
DVD: February 13, 2007
Running Time: 91 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
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)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: But I'm A Cheerleader
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
This ludicrously plotted drama of incestuous sexual abuse is only partially redeemed by its strong performances.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ella Taylor
Thematically the movie never reaches beyond the ready-for-prime-time mentality that specializes in psychological shorthand.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Phil Hall
The Quiet is best for cheap laughs by jaded moviegoers with absolutely nothing better to do with their time.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Too confused to provide any thrills, even indecent ones.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
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.
