A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE returns us to the day murderous aliens with the supersonic sense of hearing first invaded our planet, but with a different location, New York City, and a new cast of characters. It is a worthy addition to the universe created by John Krasinski, though this time Mr. Kraskinski’s contribution was to co-create the story, handing the directing and scriptwriting to Michael Sarnoski, who wowed us with PIG. He wows us here with a story that is emotionally rich and with direction that is crisp, tense, and yet finds room for a consideration of how people can choose to keep their humanity even as civilization collapses in the space of a few hours.
There is even room for thought-provoking irony in the person of Sam (Lupita Nyong’o), a dying poet who has chosen not to go gently into that dark night. Instead, she quietly spews her dyspepsia at the other residents of the suburban hospice where she has come to die, and resists the endless, good-natured patience of Reuben (Alex Wolff), the nurse who refuses to take her vitriol at face value. A field trip to New York City, with her cat in tow, coincides with the alien invasion. This is when Sam discovers that her personal death sentence has not precluded her drive to fight for her life, and that of her cat, at least until she can get a final slice of pizza from her favorite place in Harlem.
She’s joined by Eric (Joseph Quinn), a British law student who is barely coping with his near drowning in the subway when he attaches himself to Sam. There is something about Eric’s vulnerability that sparks a protective instinct in Sam, much to her surprise and his relief. Thus, the two of them, and the cat, find themselves trying not just to stay alive, but also to retain their sanity, as they stay silent and make their way to the boat that will take them to safety.
Moving the action to a densely populated city from the rural setting of the first two films is a clever decision. The sight of New York decimated and silent in the course of a few hours is a powerful image, as is the way the dust from the battles lost by the humans settles on the faces of the survivors, echoing the way the dust from the Twin Towers covered New Yorkers on 9/11. The unreality of an alien invasion blending in the unreality of a terrorist attack stopping the world meet in images of a mass of people trudging silently through the streets. The imperative to stay silent even while being consumed by terror makes for unbearable suspense, as gravity tumbles objects and a foot put wrong, or a fellow survivor going mad, threatens everyone with instant death.
Nyong’o, stripped of her voice for the most part, finds an even more effective method of evoking the cascading emotions her character endures by using her face and her body language, both of which have a seemingly endless vocabulary. With no words she conveys empathy, relief, and the push of sheer determination through the pain of her unnamed condition, one that requires Fentanyl patches to control. Quinn, as the stray she takes in, is introduced popping out of the water with a look of surprise, disbelief, and the kind of hyper-alertness that only PTSD can produce. In the course of the story, he adds tenderness and even humor to his performance, and shows us both Eric’s overwhelming fear and the courage he summons under pressure, sometimes simultaneously.
The writing itself does an excellent job of showing the limitations of mere speech, starting with the first scenes of Sam and Reuben The words Nyong’o speaks are one thing, rife with anger and impatience at Sam’s condition, tinged with bitterness, but her affect is more complex, large eyes in a frail body that refuse pity but ask for connection.
We must speak of the cat, Frodo. Played by Nico and Schnitzel, this is a feline performance that is true to the nature of cats in general, who stalk through the world like royalty, but also deign to bond with the lucky human that they have chosen. Some my scoff that here is a cat that does not meow, even under stressful conditions, what with those giant aliens with the alarming ears and bat-like structure mines the leathery wings that can-swoop faster than the eye can see on any creature that is clumsy, or foolish enough, to make even the smallest sound. I say to that, cats are smart. And this one, especially so. Those who live with cats and cherish them as they deserve will find nothing odd or unrealistic about Frodo. Maybe deigning to be led on a leash, but then again, maybe not.
A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE does more than give us another highly effective horror movie. The fragility of silence, and the swift destruction in consequence of breaking it, is a tension that is as agonizing as it is all pervasive. But the point of the story is more than the protagonist’s fear. This tale is rooted in finding what is best in human beings and does so in the most life-affirming fashion. It prevents a sequence in a candle-filled church from becoming maudlin, and it persuades us that a few moments of unexpected joy, even humor, are not a necessary narrative respite from the relentless task of staying alive, but rather an expression of what it means to be human, and therefore all the more of a necessity.
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