Grade: B
The trailers for Speak No Evil are terrific. The two that I regularly saw for months show just enough that you know it’s a thriller where something isn’t right, but you don’t know what. There’s actually a big clue in them, hidden in plain sight. One shot reveals a major plot point. I didn’t think much of it, then when it showed up in the movie, it was like “Oh yeah, of course! Duh!”
It’s about a family of three: Ben (Scoot McNairy, from Blonde and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood), Louise (Mackenzie Davis, the title character in Tully), and their preteen daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler from The Good Nurse). They have recently moved to London from America, and befriend a family of three while vacationing in Italy. They are Paddy (James McAvoy from The Book of Clarence and It Chapter Two), Ciara (Aisling Franciosi from The Last Voyage of the Demeter), and their son Ant (Dan Hough). Ant is about the same age as Agnes, and he is mute, due to what’s described as a condition where his tongue barely grew before birth.
Paddy is boisterous and rough around the edges, but likable enough that the American family accepts an invite to their secluded country home for a few days. The Blumhouse Pandora’s Box has been carted on, waiting to be opened. The viewer waits to find out exactly what this European family’s deal is. In the meantime, uncomfortable social situations and micro-aggressions rear their heads, such as:
- impromptu swimming in a cold lake
- Paddy going ballistic because Ant’s dancing to “Cotton Eye Joe” wasn’t quite his tempo
- Louise, a vegetarian, being forced to sample a piece of slow-cooked goose
- Paddy springing an adult dinner double date on everyone, leaving the kids with a mysterious babysitter that Ben and Louise have never met
And, guess what: their phones don’t have reception.
The fun in Speak No Evil is in the journey, while we try to piece it together, and all the performances sell the material well. Mackenzie as Louise isn’t just a “let’s be polite and get through it” movie wife. Throughout everything, she has moments of sharing her doubts, insecurities, objections, and preconceived notions. McAvoy is just right, with his smile and occasional head twitches that hint at discoveries we haven’t learned yet.
I suppose it was inevitable that the movie would settle into a violent cat-and-mouse hide-and-seek climax. It doesn’t ring terribly true to life, but the villain sure looks cool, bloody and staggering around yelling out taunting dialogue, with a certain kind of eating grin. This is a remake of a Danish film from 2022. It made several critics’ top ten lists. I hear that the ending is brutal, nihilistic, and unsettling, but more in line with how things would play out. Two years later, on this side of the pond, we have a safe, soft, more optimistic, Americanized conclusion. Maybe it’s lucky that I saw Speak No Evil (2024) first, because – with nothing to compare it to – I liked it just fine. Beginning with the original version might have been like reading a book, and then seeing its movie.
Grade: B
Film Reviews by Mark 
Leave a comment