A Quiet Place: Day One
As John Krasinski hands over the baton to a new director, the silent franchise still exerts enormous power thanks in large part to Lupita Nyong’o’s charismatic performance.
Silent fight: Joseph Quinn and Lupita Nyong’o
Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures
The premise remains the same. The world is under attack by an alien species with absolutely no vision but phenomenal hearing. The slightest sound could end your life. A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place: Part II were a hard act to follow, so the prequel has been wise to take a totally different tack. New York City is anything but a quiet place, far from the rural tranquillity of the first two films. Day One opens with the ominous caption: “New York City registers a volume of 90 decibels – the sound of a constant scream.”
It is here, in this bustling metropolis, that the invasion is launched, just as Samira (Lupita Nyong’o) makes what may well be her last visit to the city, ostensibly to pick up some pizza from Patsy’s Pizzeria. Samira is a bitter, withdrawn poet undergoing palliative care at the Little Firs Hospice Center. She is bitter because she is being snatched before her time, from an aggressive form of cancer…
Day One, based on a story by the film’s writer-director Michael Sarnoski and by John Krasinski (director of the previous outings), features characters oblivious to the imminent menace, whereas the Abbott family in the first films (headed by Krasinski and his wife Emily Blunt) had established an intricate lifestyle in which to live side-by-side with the intruders. The dramatis personae here are forced to learn fast in order to survive, so that the idiot who screams, “we’re all going to die!” promptly fulfils his own prophecy. On this occasion, there seem to be far more of the aliens, seen scampering up the sides of the city’s apartment blocks and high rises with preternatural speed. However, ‘more’ seldom equates to better.
A Quiet Place: Day One is less about the thrills, being an apocalyptic elegy reflecting the lyricism of its protagonist’s verse. It’s more a film of moments, snatched minutes of human connection, than a rollercoaster ride of terror. Feeling tricked by her nurse Reuben (Alex Wolff) in attending a marionette show in Manhattan, Samira is subtly won over by the magic on stage as a wooden boy miraculously inflates a balloon.
Nyong’o’s features, whether caked in masonry dust or streaked with tears, is the human face of the film, proving yet again what a remarkable screen presence she is. New York has a habit of throwing together disparate figures, in this case a law student from Kent (Joseph Quinn) and a poet from Harlem, along with the latter’s cat, Frodo (giving the best feline performance of the year). And then there are the deserted, shattered streets – recreated in two English studios – the stage on which the last remnants of humanity act out their drama.
As to be expected from the franchise, the performances are superlative and the visuals consistently striking. The powerful family dynamic of the first two chapters may be missing, but these new lost souls must make their own instant family if they are to survive – and in almost complete silence. Djimon Hounsou returns as Henri, from the last film, suggesting that there may be more to come, depending on the box-office returns (which are already sensational). But the premise of a world in which stillness and quiet is our greatest defence is one that can run and run, drawing on different locales and characters. As a dramatic tool, silence is enormously effective, and the prequel might have been even more effective if it had been an even quieter place.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, Djimon Hounsou, Eliane Umuhire, Takunda Khumalo, Alfie Todd.
Dir Michael Sarnoski, Pro Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller and John Krasinski, Screenplay Michael Sarnoski, from a story by Michael Sarnoski and John Krasinski, Ph Pat Scola, Pro Des Simon Bowles, Ed Gregory Plotkin and Andrew Mondshein, Music Alexis Grapsas, Costumes Bex Crofton-Atkins, Sound Kate Bilinski, Dialect coach Helen Ashton.
Platinum Dunes/Sunday Night Productions-Paramount Pictures.
100 mins. USA/UK. 2024. UK and US Rel: 28 June 2024. Cert. 15.
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