The Quiet
| The Quiet | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Jamie Babbit |
| Written by | Abdi Nazemian Micah Schraft |
| Produced by | Tom Schatz |
| Starring | Elisha Cuthbert Camilla Belle Martin Donovan Shawn Ashmore |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Classics |
Release dates | 12 September 2005 (Toronto Film Festival), 1 September 2006 (limited release) |
Running time | 91 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$900,000 |
The Quiet is a 2005 film directed by Jamie Babbit. The plot is about a deaf, mute and orphaned teenager named Dot (Belle), who can read lips and is sent to live with her godparents and their daughter, Nina (Cuthbert). Dot soon discovers the secrets of her new family.
Plot
The story revolves around Dot, a deaf mute. She is sent to live with her godparents and their daughter Nina, where she discovers the secrets of her new family. She learns of an incestuous relationship between Nina and her father Paul, a successful architect with "the best house in Meriden," which has driven Nina into a mad state, and led her to plan the murder of her father.
After discovering that Dot is not deaf or mute, Nina pretends that she doesn't know the truth. For reasons of her own, Nina still pretends that Dot cannot tell anyone, and she confides in Dot the actions of her father and her plans to murder him.
Paul continues to impose on Nina's life, not only engaging in incestuous relations but keeping her from staying out late just to be able to take advantage of her while Nina's mother Olivia is asleep (Olivia always falls asleep or goes into a trance early because of her addiction to various painkillers, and simply tries to avoid resolving her arguments and family problems). Dot becomes aware of everything Nina and Paul do around the house. She also is assigned to be lab partners with Connor Kennedy, a star basketball player, and their working together arouses jealousy in Michelle, Nina's loudmouthed fellow cheerleader and best friend, who is very attracted to Connor and, like Nina, very unreceptive to Dot's difficulties and entry into their lives. Connor does well communicating to Dot through lip-reading to work on the report, knowing that with a disability of his own (Attention Deficit Disorder) he needs to improve his grades to get a basketball scholarship to UConn. He also becomes very attracted to Dot, both in the physical beauty she'd hid from others in her heavy attire, and in her ability to play the piano.
He also begins to confide things in Dot because he believes she cannot hear him. After confiding that he is a virgin, Dot undresses for him and he has sex with her. Dot realizes that part of her attraction for him is her deafness and pushes him away. After which he becomes upset when she signals that she does not want to go to the dance with him or be around him at all.
Before the dance, Nina tells Paul that she is pregnant, and needs $1000 for an abortion. However, once he discovers tampons in her purse, he realizes that she was lying and was only trying to obtain the money to get away from the house, and begins to physically abuse her. The abuse turns into an attempt at rape. Dot recognizes what is going on upstairs, stops playing her piano, and heads upstairs and uses a piano wire to strangle and kill Paul while Olivia remains downstairs staring at the nighttime news in a drugged stupor, despite also seemingly being fully aware of the events upstairs. She doesn't come upstairs until Dot begins screaming and talking, and her only comment on being faced with the body of Paul is to tell Dot that, its a miracle that Dot can hear. Nina and Dot dispose of the dress with Paul's blood on it during the school dance. At this point, Nina questions Dot and finds out the truth behind Dots' reason for pretending to be deaf and mute. When the girls arrive home, Olivia has turned herself into the police and claims that she, not Dot, killed Paul, and did it on purpose; she effectively uses this as a means to confess to negligence of her family since she had plenty of prior opportunities to deal with Paul's abuse of Nina and did nothing about them.
The movie ends on an uncertain note as the two girls play piano together and enjoy, "The Quiet".
Distribution
Sony Pictures Classics picked up this film in May, 2006, after seeing it at the Toronto Film Festival.
Cast
- Elisha Cuthbert – Nina Deer
- Camilla Belle – Dot
- Edie Falco – Olivia Deer
- Shawn Ashmore – Connor
- Martin Donovan – Paul Deer
- Shannon Woodward – Fiona
- David Gallagher – Brian
- Katy Mixon – Michelle
Selected basketball team members
- Celester Collier – Basketball coach
- Ryan Aiken – Basketball player
- Cole Dabney – Basketball player
- Thomas "TJ" Geredine – Basketball player
- Ben Panner – Dunking Basketball player
- Zach Urbanus – Basketball player who replaces Connor (Shawn Ashmore)
Filming location
Bowie High School in Austin, Texas was chosen as the principal filming location for The Quiet. The producers chose to use the Bowie Basketball Team as well.
Early buzz
The film garnered a substantial amount of early buzz from the Toronto Film Festival and other independent film festivals.
External links
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