Movie Review Speak No Evil (2022)
No gossip, 2022
Director: Christian Tafdrup. With Morten Burian, Sidsel Si Koch, Fedja van Huyt, Karina Smulders, Liva Forsberg, Marius Damslev, Hichem Yacoubi, Leo Baastrup Ronet and Jesper Dupont.
SUMMARY:
A Danish family visits a Dutch family they met on vacation. What should have been an idyllic weekend unfolds slowly as the Danes try to remain polite in the face of inconvenience.
Patience runs out when Danish guests invited to a rural Dutch family fail to make wise decisions or continue to make bad ones. Sure, gruesome choices are a staple of the horror genre, but director Christian Tufdrup (who co-wrote the screenplay with Mads Tufdrup) not only embraces it in Speak No Evil, but also incorporates it into the narrative.
Various contrived elements still work against the overall narrative, but nothing takes away from the murky, chilling essence of Speak No Evil, which culminates in a disturbing series of shocking and heartbreaking events. When the titles were written, my first thought was, “Thank God, these are just fictional characters. It was the only way to calm my nerves and organize my thoughts. So many movies wanted audiences to care about characters like Say No Evil, which made me beg for them to sell out and have a happy ending (which I rarely want). That's how ruthless, relentless and thrilling it is.
Granted, it's hard to explain why the story runs spoiler-free, as we spend most of the last 15 minutes staggering what we think of these characters and what the movie might say (the motivations for some of the heinous actions are obvious) between: and terribly, inexplicably bad). But it can be said that a general study of the similarities between the Danes and the Dutch, however different these particular families are, is not a straightforward dynamic without their universal qualities. Speak No Evil is a tongue-in-cheek title (and there are bits of biting humor here) because it's a story about the voiceless and the voices, and how the latter should use them instead of returning to civility. , although many things are clearly different from the situations. are close at hand.
Danish couple Bjorn and Louise (played by Morten Burjan and Sidsel Siem Koch respectively) are vacationing in Tuscany with their young daughter Agnes (Liva Forsberg) when Dutch couple Patrick and Karin (Fedja van Huyt and Karina Smulders) meet their young son . .z. Abel (Marius Damslev). They chat casually, have lunch together, and briefly introduce themselves. Key details include Louise's love of vegetarian food, Björn's scruffy appearance and tremors in unpleasant situations, Patrick's medical history, and Abel's disability of being born without a tongue (or much smaller than a normal human).
Some time after these holidays, Patrick and Karin invite Björn and Louise to their cozy house in the forest to meet and relax. Reluctantly, since Björn and Louise do not yet know Patrik and Karin well, they comply anyway, believing that the separation will be beneficial (while noting that Agnès will have someone to play with). Families have been using completely opposite parenting methods ever since, and that's all you need to know to say No Evil.
The performances are moving, and there's an eerie, palpable sense of dread at times from the moment the families begin to clash (a heavy feeling when a character does something incredibly horrific), and the finale is incredibly tense, accentuated by the powerful score of Sune Kolster.
Say No Evil is a terrifying movie with a four-word climactic phrase that will be long remembered.
Flashing Mythic Ranking - Movie: ★★★★ / Movie: ★★★★
Robert Cooder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics' Choice Association. He is also the thrilling editor of Mythos. Check here for new reviews, follow my tweets or emails, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
