movie review the quiet

One strength of The Quiet is that it does not deal exploitatively with the incest/sexual abuse issue in its quest to generate tension. This is a grim subject, and Babbit gives it its due. Nina is obviously confused and damaged. She lashes out for no reason at Dot, is dismissive of her mother, and has a love/hate relationship with her father. She fantasizes about murdering him, but cannot summon the courage. She craves simple affection - after verbally abusing Dot for half of the film, she curls up next to her one night for comfort after rejecting one of her father's advances. Paul suffers from self-disgust. He calls himself "sick" and wants to stop sleeping with his daughter, but he lacks the strength to block the compulsion. Olivia shields herself from reality with drugs, but she is complicit in what's happening with her husband and daughter. Many nights when he leaves her bed, she is not asleep.

The most interesting character is Dot, and the movie is presented from her point-of-view. Her running internal monologue is unnecessary and distracting but, other than that, the character is presented effectively. Initially, we are unsure whether or not Dot is deaf. There are clues in the way she reacts to the comments of others that indicate she's not what she seems to be. Once we have figured out her secret (this comes fairly early in the film, so it's not really a spoiler), the story takes its time showing how she exploits this advantage. Of course, it's not certain how others will react if they learn she can hear things she was not meant to. It is dishonest and some people, including her possible boyfriend (Shawn Ashmore), might view it as a betrayal. Nina, on the other hand, uses her knowledge of Dot's secret to manipulate the other girl.

The tone is cool and emphasizes isolation in accordance with Dot's perspective of her place in the world. For a while, she remains aloof, but circumstances eventually force her to make a choice. Things start collapsing like a house of cards when one trigger sets in motion a series of unstoppable events.

The high school scenes are refreshingly free of the usual dumb, scripted interaction we have come to expect from these situations. The cafeteria and classrooms are not populated by a group of bland stereotypes. These are real people and when they don't like someone, they express it in a snide, offhand manner, not by going over-the-top. This is how I remember high school - sometimes awkward, sometimes cruel and unforgiving.

Both of the leads give strong performances. As Nina, Elisha Cuthbert captures all of the emotional shifts her character must endure, forcing the viewer to reassess an individual who is initially unlikable. This stands as an argument that Cuthbert was underused in 24 . Sure, she's attractive, but she also has ability that the TV show never showcased. Camilla Bell, who was excellent in The Ballad of Jack and Rose and wasted in When a Stranger Calls , does the majority of her work with body language and facial expressions. Edie Falco and Martin Donovan give balanced supporting performances, lending humanity to roles that could have been one-dimensional.

The Quiet is going to disturb some viewers, and this is uncertain territory for any thriller to traverse. Babbit, however, is careful in the way she approaches the material, and the rhythms of the movie are often more what one would expect from a straight drama. Nevertheless, there is an underlying current of suspense and, even though the story's trajectory makes sense in hindsight, it is not predictable. 20 minutes before the conclusion, I wasn't sure where things were going. For those who don't mind thrillers with darker, serious underpinnings, The Quiet is worth a trip to a theater.

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This 'Quiet Place' prequel is a little too mum on backstory

Justin Chang

Samira (Lupita Nyong’o) and her cat Frodo try to avoid alien attack in A Quiet Place: Day One. Gareth Gatrell/Paramount Pictures hide caption

It’s no surprise that A Quiet Place: Day One has fared so well with audiences. Horror is a reliable draw in theaters, and the Quiet Place movies, about deadly aliens that can hear a twig snap from miles away, are especially fun to watch in a packed house. Like the human characters on screen, we stay silent, daring not to cough, scream or slurp our sodas too loudly.

The first two movies, both directed by John Krasinski , followed an upstate New York family struggling to survive several months after the aliens first arrived. Part of what made the movies so creepily effective was that they told us little about the monsters themselves — where they came from or what they were doing on planet Earth, beyond killing as many humans as possible.

With few words, Lupita Nyong'o's 'Quiet Place: Day One' performance speaks for itself

Now, with A Quiet Place: Day One , the series shifts gears. Taking over for Krasinski, the writer-director Michael Sarnoski rewinds back to the very start of the invasion and introduces a new set of characters. Lupita Nyong’o plays Samira, a terminally ill woman who finds herself on a day trip to New York City along with other patients from her hospice. Samira didn’t want to come, but she’d been promised pizza and couldn’t resist. She’s brought along her support cat, whose name is Frodo. That’s fitting, of course, since Manhattan is about to become a present-day Mordor — a land of ash, smoke and destruction, as the aliens descend from the sky and immediately begin their murderous rampage.

The aliens are blind and hunt entirely by sound, which means that anyone who screams is toast. But Samira is one of a bunch of survivors who hush up early on and quickly realize that they can’t make any noise. This seems to contradict the first movie, which implied that it took humanity longer than five minutes to figure out the rules of this lethal game. It’s all a little fuzzy, and it’s disappointing that A Quiet Place: Day One doesn’t give us a bigger, clearer picture of the global invasion.

Instead, it focuses on Samira and her new friend, Eric, an English law student played by an appealing Joseph Quinn, from Stranger Things . Eric is shellshocked and quickly latches on to Samira, following her wherever she goes; against her better judgment, she lets him. In one wordless scene, the two try to dodge the aliens in the lobby of a large office building, but their racing and panting give them away, as the monsters shriek and smash their way into the building.

'A Quiet Place' Will Leave You Shhhhhhaken

For the most part, though, A Quiet Place: Day One does not consist of wall-to-wall mayhem; at times it seems to forget it’s an action movie. I say this with some admiration. Sarnoski made a striking debut in 2021 with the Nicolas Cage drama Pig , a darkly funny crime story that was also a moving rumination on love and loss. He attempts something equally poignant and character-driven here, with lengthy scenes of Samira and Eric getting to know each other. The two leads have a sweet end-of-the-world chemistry, and Nyong’o, so good in Jordan Peele ’s Us , proves that she can anchor another horror vehicle without uttering so much as a scream.

Listen Carefully: The Tense 'Quiet Place' Sequel Speaks To Our Present Time

At a certain point, though, it’s not enough. The absence of broader narrative context made sense in the first movie, but with this latest, or rather earliest, chapter, I found myself wanting to learn more. Sarnoski does provide some sweeping details; the fact that the aliens can’t swim plays out in ingenious ways on an island like Manhattan. And the director plants at least one clue about the aliens that will probably pay off in another Quiet Place movie down the road.

Day One does have two big things going for it, namely that it’s a movie for pizza lovers and cat lovers. While other survivors head south to evacuate by ferry boat, Samira goes north in search of her favorite pizza parlor; she knows she doesn’t have long, and before the cancer or the aliens get her, she wants a slice.

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And Frodo is with her every step of the way. Cats are natural scene stealers, and Frodo is especially compelling, in part, because you keep worrying that he’ll hiss or yowl or cough up a hairball. But no: Frodo turns out to be one implausibly quiet cat, which is a relief, since one wrong noise could have quickly turned the movie into Apocalypse Meow .

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Review: ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ is the rare prequel that outclasses the original for mood

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To watch “A Quiet Place: Day One” is to recalibrate your senses — not to the alien horror movie you know is in store but rather, to the intimate human drama it hangs onto, long after a lesser film would have given up. Among its lovely images, there’s the distant New York skyline seen beyond a Queens cemetery, a sight familiar to anyone who’s ever driven into town. There are the resigned glances of terminal patients in hospice. Mostly, we take in the exquisite face of Lupita Nyong’o as Sam, a young person in the prime of life stricken with cancer, who carries the unfairness of her situation just below the surface.

Sirens and fighter-jet shrieks ease their way into the sound mix, as they must in any prequel to 2018’s civilization-ending “A Quiet Place” and 2020’s more-of-the-same “A Quiet Place Part II.” But even as smoke and white ash fill the air (best to leave those Sept. 11 memories at home) and pissed-off creatures rampage like cattle down the city’s glass and steel canyons, there’s an unusual commitment to the darker fringes of postapocalyptic moviemaking. It’s less “Furiosa” and more “The Road.”

Sam is already prepared to die, lending the film an impressively bleak tone and sparing us the rote machinations of hardy-band-of-survivors plotting. All she wants to do is walk — very quietly — approximately 120 blocks north from Chinatown to Harlem, where she can scarf the last slices of pizza from Patsy’s before such delicacies become ancient history.

It’s a refreshing, near-radical concept to build a studio film around, and as Sam sets off, a tote bag on her arm and her black-and-white support cat Frodo beside her, you may be reminded of that other woman-and-feline survival story, “Alien,” stripped to the bone. (One also wonders, glumly, how NYC’s thousands of dogs fared with these tetchy sound-averse invaders.)

The person pulling all this off is director-screenwriter Michael Sarnoski, last seen evincing a recognizably human performance from Nicolas Cage as a crumpled, broken chef in “Pig,” which was also about facing a kind of personal catastrophe. (He’s now made two of the most downbeat foodie films in a row.) Sarnoski, who wrote the story with original creator John Krasinski, does fine enough by the James Cameron-like action sequences that probably were mandated by the powers that be: chase sequences in flooded subway tunnels — yuck — and abandoned landmarks.

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But he’s stronger on personal moments, such as the finest take of Djimon Hounsou ’s career, consumed in spiraling guilt and choking back a scream after accidentally killing someone for panicking too loud. There’s also a business-suited Brit (Joseph Quinn, last seen shredding to Metallica in “Stranger Things”) who only wants to join Sam on her pizza quest. With a minimum of words, we somehow understand that he’s devoted way too much of his time on the planet to not connecting with other human beings, and he may only get this one day to make up for it.

You can take or leave a subplot about Sam’s writing career and thwarted dreams. For this viewer, there’s more poetry in her stopping at an abandoned bookstore, as we all would do, picking up a used paperback (fittingly, Octavia E. Butler ’s 1987 sci-fi novel “Dawn,” which you sense she has read) and sniffing the pages: a history captured in a scent. She too is savoring humanity’s last vestiges. This is a film that seems to know a lot about future psychology. May we never know such mournfulness outside of an ambitious summer blockbuster.

'A Quiet Place: Day One'

Rating: PG-13, for terror and violent content/bloody images Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes Playing: In wide release June 28.

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Joshua Rothkopf is film editor of the Los Angeles Times. He most recently served as senior movies editor at Entertainment Weekly. Before then, Rothkopf spent 16 years at Time Out New York, where he was film editor and senior film critic. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Sight and Sound, Empire, Rolling Stone and In These Times, where he was chief film critic from 1999 to 2003.

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‘A Quiet Place’ prequel box office speaks volumes as Costner’s Western gets a bumpy start

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Lupita Nyong’o in a scene from “A Quiet Place: Day One.” (Gareth Gatrell/Paramount Pictures via AP)

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Joseph Quinn, left, and Lupita Nyong’o in a scene from “A Quiet Place: Day One.” (Gareth Gatrell/Paramount Pictures via AP)

Lupita Nyong’o attends the Paramount Pictures premiere of “A Quiet Place: Day One” at AMC Lincoln Square on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Lupita Nyong’o, left, and Joseph Quinn attend the Paramount Pictures premiere of “A Quiet Place: Day One” at AMC Lincoln Square on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

John Krasinski, from left, Michael Sarnoski, Djimon Hounsou, Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn and Alex Wolff attend the Paramount Pictures premiere of “A Quiet Place: Day One” at AMC Lincoln Square on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Kevin Costner in a scene from “Horizon: An American Saga-Chapter I.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Jamie Campbell Bower, left, and Kevin Costner in a scene from “Horizon: An American Saga-Chapter I.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

Kevin Costner, the director, co-writer and star of “Horizon: An American Saga,” arrives at the premiere of the film at the Regency Village Theatre, Monday, July 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Kevin Costner, the director, co-writer and star of “Horizon: An American Saga,” poses at the premiere of the film at the Regency Village Theatre, Monday, July 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

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“ A Quiet Place: Day One ” is making noise at the box office. The prequel earned an estimated $53 million in its first weekend in North American theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.

It’s both a franchise best and significantly more than expected. Going into the weekend, prerelease tracking had “Day One” pegged for a $40 million debut, but audiences were clearly more enthusiastic to see the action-horror starring Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn and released by Paramount. The same could not be said for Kevin Costner’s “ Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1 ,” which opened to $11 million.

The ”Quiet Place” victory wasn’t quite enough to snag the coveted first place spot on the charts, though. That honor again went to Disney and Pixar’s juggernaut “ Inside Out 2 ,” which added an estimated $57.4 million in its third weekend in theaters , and crossed $1 billion globally.

There’s a distant possibility that the places will shift when actuals are released Monday. But either way it’s good news for movie theaters in a summer season that’s finally heating up but still running far behind last year (down 19%) and pre-pandemic norms (down 36% from 2019).

“Inside Out 2” continues to be a box office phenomenon, the likes of which the industry hasn’t seen since “Barbie” almost a year ago. In just three weeks of release, it’s earned nearly $470 million in North America and $545.5 million internationally, bringing its global total to $1.01 billion. The sequel is the only 2024 release to cross the billion dollar mark and it did it in just 19 days, a record for an animated film.

“The film’s stunning global success once again illustrates that audiences the world over will respond to compelling, entertaining movies, and that they want to enjoy them on the big screen,” said Michael O’Leary, president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners, in a statement.

“A Quiet Place: Day One,” directed by Michael Sarnoski and rated PG-13, is also fast approaching an important threshold out of the gates. Including the $45.5 million from international showings in 59 markets, the $67 million production has already made $98.5 million.

“There’s a lot of love for the ‘A Quiet Place’ franchise,” said Chris Aronson, the head of domestic distribution for Paramount. “We listened to the fans who wanted to expand the universe.”

In a rare feat for a third film, it opened higher than both “A Quiet Place” ($50.2 million opening in April 2018) and “ A Quiet Place: Part II ” ($47.5 million opening in May 2021). John Krasinski , who wrote and directed the first two, continued serving as a producer.

“It’s one of those rare horror franchises that has generated incredible goodwill with audiences and critics alike,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore.

At the premiere of prequel “A Quiet Place: Day One” in New York, actor Lupita Nyong’o reflects on the success of the alien invasion franchise. (June 27)

Playing on 3,708 screens in the U.S. and Canada, nearly 40% of its domestic earnings came from “premium screens” including IMAX and other large formats. It entered the marketplace with mostly positive reviews (84% on Rotten Tomatoes); Audiences gave it a B+ CinemaScore and four out of five stars on PostTrak.

“We put together a compelling package but also I think it shows people want to go to the movies,” Aronson said. “The marketplace really works when there are choices and there’s something for everybody.”

The start for “Horizon,” meanwhile, was sluggish. Though older audiences, the ones most likely to support a Western epic, don’t typically rush out to see films on opening weekend the way people often do for horrors and superheroes, the road ahead will not be easy: Reviews have not been great and it got an underwhelming B- CinemaScore.

The stakes are also a little different for “Horizon,” a $100 million production that Costner financed on his own and partnered with Warner Bros. to distribute. It opened in 3,334 locations. A decades-old passion project, he mortgaged property in Santa Barbara, Calif. to finance it and exited “Yellowstone” to see it through. In a bold, unconventional strategy, “Chapter 2” arrives in theaters later this summer, on Aug. 16. He also has plans for two more movies.

“The western genre is one of those that is very specific,” Dergarabedian said. “It’s going to be about the long game.”

A quick glance at the top 10 shows that audiences are largely favoring franchises and “known commodities” over originals. “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” was right behind “Horizon” on the charts, and it’s been in theaters for four weeks already.

“Audiences in the summer want the tried and true, they want the familiar,” Dergarabedian said.

He was also struck by the diversity of genres in the top 10, including two Indian films: The Telugu language sci-fi “Kalki 2898 AD” in fifth place with $5.4 million and the Punjabi language “Jatt & Juliet 3” in ninth place with $1.5 million.

“If you can’t find something that appeals to you at the multiplex right now, you’re not looking hard enough,” Dergarabedian said.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Inside Out 2,” $57.4 million.

2. “A Quiet Place: Day One,” $53 million.

3. “Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1,” $11 million.

4. “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” $10.3 million.

5. “Kalki 2898 AD,” $5.4 million.

6. “The Bikeriders,” $3.3 million.

7. “The Garfield Movie,” $2 million.

8. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” $168.1 million.

9. “Jatt & Juliet 3,” $1.5 million.

10. “Kinds of Kindness,” $1.5 million.

"Bleak Take on Family Life"

What You Need To Know:

(PaPaPa, AB, LLL, VVV, SSS, NN, DD, MM) Very strong pagan worldview in which characters behave according to their desires, and voiceover denies the idea that "the truth will set you free"; 35 obscenities and two profanities; graphic depiction of a murder in which a throat is slit with a wire; several graphic conversations and references to sex, girls watch porn, girl shows another girl her breast, man describes his masturbation habits, implied and depicted sexual relationship between a father and daughter, and sex between high school students; upper female nudity, female cleavage, girl in her underwear; no alcohol use; prescription drug abuse; and, deceit is a prominent theme, girl shows contempt toward her parents, character tastes the ashes of her cremated father.

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As any spelunker knows, even the darkest cave can be explored with the aid of a safety line – a rope that will guide you back to the entrance. But in stories, as in caves, it is deadly to enter the darkness without keeping track of the light. In THE QUIET, the filmmakers have plunged into the abyss of incest, addiction and loathing without the aid of a moral tether. The result is a bleak take on family life and a sordid meditation on loathing and destructive behaviors.

Dot (Camilla Belle) is a recently orphaned high schooler who comes to live with her godparents, Paul and Olivia Deer (Martin Donovan and Edie Falco), much to the consternation of teenage daughter Nina (Elisha Cuthbert). Dot has everyone convinced she’s deaf and mute and is content to be a social outcast, shutting out the people around her as much as she can. The audience knows this because of her voiceover narration which functions throughout the movie as almost the only slit in her silent veil.

Dot fears interactions with people, but because her silence cloaks her in virtual anonymity, she becomes a kind of confidant to whom people reveal their dark secrets – and there are plenty to go around. With the aid of prescription drugs, Olivia Deer keeps herself in a constant state of disconnection and denial as her husband pursues their teenage daughter. Dot is not the passive confessor people think she is, however, and when she learns about the incestuous relationship in the Deer house, she is compelled to take action.

Dot is meant to be the conscience of the story, such as it is. Though her narration provides some insight into her otherwise impenetrable motivation, the narration feels awkward, like a device employed only to ensure the audience will empathize with her.

THE QUIET never glamorizes the immoral behavior of its characters. It is still (fortunately) easy to find the depiction of the father’s incestuous relationship with his daughter detestable or to pity the mother’s self-destruction. The hatred and loathing that result is certainly evident. Nevertheless, simply depicting the effects of depravity is inadequate storytelling if our criterion for evaluating entertainment involves edification. There should be no prohibition against our storytellers wrestling with the human crimes of hatred, rape, incest, murder, genocide, destruction, or suffering. They are part of the world we are called to redeem and the Bible deals very directly with all of them. We must ask our storytellers to do the same, but, without a moral compass, stories are only a tangle of consequences that lead to the grave. We seek stories that are human – not inhuman or humanist. Human stories deal honestly with our corrupted world but never deny or forsake the hopeful implications of the incarnation.

No doubt some think THE QUIET is brave and bold filmmaking, and truly if you have abandoned the very idea of a moral standard, it is bold indeed to undertake an exploration of the human heart. You are liable to get lost in the dark.

‘The Quiet Girl’ Is One of the Most Heartbreaking Movies in Ages

By David Fear

The girl is named Cáit. She’s 12 years old, doesn’t like attention, stays hidden and silent when she can. Living in the rural Irish countryside in the early 1980s, she’s the youngest of a brood belonging to parents that seem one perpetually short fuse away from exploding. Or rather, she was the youngest — her Ma is six months pregnant. As for her Da, he’s a largely absent, mostly glowering presence capable of inspiring a dread-inducing hush into the household upon entering. Even when he brings Cáit with him to a pub, he’s still just an ominous figure to her, yet another adult downing pints and yet another incentive to be neither seen nor heard.

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There is a sense that a clock is ticking somewhere, and this feeling of familial love is regrettably finite. The Quiet Girl knows this, and it knows that you know this. How it gets to where this story needs to end, however, is what separates it from every other melodrama that’s used the whole notion of angelic surrogate parents as a way of wringing your tear ducts dry. By the time we get to the climax, we can see that these three have changed, even if the notion of a permanent reset becomes a pipe dream. It’s also not giving anything away to say that it ends on a display of total and utter grace that’s also devastating, and may require theaters to thoroughly waterproof their floors before showings.

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A Quiet Place: Day One is not the horror prequel you're expecting

It's crept into cinemas now.

While Lupita Nyong'o and Joseph Quinn – and, more importantly, Schnitzel and Nico the cats – have been on a press tour, reviews for the horror prequel were embargoed until day of release, with screenings only taking place in the past week or so.

It's common for a Marvel movie, usually in an attempt to limit spoilers being released, but you'd be forgiven for being concerned when it comes to A Quiet Place: Day One .

Luckily, we can alleviate all those fears right now!

A Quiet Place: Day One is another excellent instalment in the franchise, delivering the tense set pieces you'd expect, but also with an emotional core that you might not.

It appears as though Paramount took the Marvel approach with the late embargo for A Quiet Place: Day One .

Something is revealed in the opening scene that has been kept out of all marketing to date, distinguishing Day One from the other two movies – and not just because it's a prequel. It instantly turns it from just another apocalyptic scare-fest into something more intimate and affecting.

We're not going to reveal it here, but fear not, it's not the kind of spoiler that would ruin your experience of the movie. If anything, it might even make the movie seem more interesting to you, as well as confirming just why Pig filmmaker Michael Sarnoski was the perfect fit for this movie.

Otherwise, it's very much business as usual. Samira (Lupita Nyong'o) finds herself in the heart of New York City when the aliens invade. Along the way, she reluctantly teams up with Eric (Joseph Quinn), and the two quickly have to adapt to survive in this new environment where the slightest noise can kill you.

A Quiet Place Part II didn't stray too far from what made the first movie a hit, and likewise, Sarnoski doesn't deviate much from the formula. We get a regular succession of intense alien-attack set pieces, taking place on a larger scale and using excellent sound design to make even the slightest fabric rip sound like a jet engine.

There's nothing to these set pieces we haven't seen in the previous two movies, meaning it can feel overly familiar at times, but they're so precisely honed that you'll find yourself holding your breath all the same, especially when Frodo the cat (played by Schnitzel and Nico) is in danger . Not that he'd know it, the movie perfectly captures the nonchalance of a cat in any situation.

Crucially, even on the wider canvas of a city, Sarnoski is careful to keep the focus on our main characters. The opening attack is as disorientating for the audience as it is for Sam, stumbling around in a heavy plume of dust and smoke as those around her are violently killed.

Sarnoski often seems more interested in the quieter, alien-free moments of humanity, developing Samira and Eric as characters you care for to make the set pieces more terrifying. It helps, of course, when you've got two leading stars with talent like Lupita Nyong'o and Joseph Quinn.

With minimal dialogue – and what dialogue there is having to be delivered in whispers – Nyong'o commands the screen, every emotion conveyed by her facial expressions. Samira's development across the movie might be conventional – stoic loner to trusting friend – but Nyong'o makes it feel fresh and earned.

Joseph Quinn enters proceedings a bit later than you'd expect, but sparks up an instant chemistry with Nyong'o. Eric is the opposite of Samira: he's terrified to the point of having panic attacks, clinging to Samira for strength. In Quinn's charismatic hands though, it's endearing rather than pathetic, and their interaction brings moments of levity.

Samira and Eric's friendship also brings a deeper emotional aspect compared to the previous two movies. If you thought Lee signing 'I love you' to Regan in the first movie was a lot, wait until you get to a beautiful sequence in a bar between Samira and Eric. You'll cry over pizza.

Of course, the real scene-stealer is Schnitzel the cat (and double Nico) as Frodo who, rightly, gets his own hero moments. Nyong'o and Quinn are superb, but they can't compete with an adorable cat who clearly does not give a damn that he's in an apocalypse.

We get that you might be fearful about whether we needed a prequel, but A Quiet Place: Day One justifies its place in the series. It's not the movie you might expect and that's a good thing.

For more on A Quiet Place: Day One, check out:

• How long is A Quiet Place: Day One ? • Everything you need to know about A Quiet Place 3 • How Stranger Things helped Joseph Quinn on A Quiet Place: Day One • Lupita Nyong'o had "cat therapy" for A Quiet Place: Day One

A Quiet Place: Day One is out now in cinemas.

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Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor.  Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies , attending genre festivals around the world.   After moving to Digital Spy , initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.  

.css-15yqwdi:before{top:0;width:100%;height:0.25rem;content:'';position:absolute;background-image:linear-gradient(to right,#51B3E0,#51B3E0 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 5rem,#E5E54F 5rem,#E5E54F 7.5rem,black 7.5rem,black);} A Quiet Place

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This Service Cat Has a Big Job: The Apocalypse

The director of “A Quiet Place: Day One” was confident a cat could take on the end of the world. But could the feline actors win over Lupita Nyong’o?

By Esther Zuckerman

How did a cat named Schnitzel win the starring role of Frodo in “ A Quiet Place: Day One ”? He impressed the director Michael Sarnoski with his nonchalant confidence, rugged looks and intelligent face.

“He had a lot going on behind his eyes,” Sarnoski said in an interview last week, when the film made its theatrical debut. “A lot of the other cats were really adorable but almost too cutesy, like they would be in a cat food commercial. And Schnitzel had a little bit of an edge, like you could kind of believe he was a bit of a world-weary street cat.”

Frodo has a lot to be weary about in this cinematic universe. The film, a prequel to the 2018 horror movie “A Quiet Place” and its 2021 sequel, chronicles aliens invading Earth and attacking everything that makes a sound.

Lupita Nyong’o plays Sam, a cancer patient caught in the apocalypse with her service cat while visiting New York. Though most people want to escape Manhattan, Sam knows she is dying regardless and just wants to go to Harlem, where she grew up, and grab a slice of pizza. She meets a British law student named Eric (Joseph Quinn), who agrees to join her, and the cat becomes a comfort to them both. (Sam is a poet, hence Frodo’s literary name.) And spoiler warning: Audiences will be happy to know Frodo makes it out alive.

Sarnoski, who also wrote the screenplay, grew up with cats and knew he wanted Sam to have an animal companion. But the creature would need to be able to navigate an urban apocalypse in silence. A dog would bark at a threat, and something like a bunny, say, wouldn’t fit in the grit of Manhattan. But it’s common to see cats around the city, wandering the streets or guarding delis. Frodo even meets a bodega cat, played by a ginger-and-white shorthair named Stanlee, a runner-up for the lead role.

“A lot of people are like, ‘Why doesn’t the cat make more noise?’ But cats are very smart, predatory creatures,” Sarnoski said, adding that he believed a cat would recognize the danger and figure out how to survive. “I figured a cat would have a shot.”

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“A Quiet Place: Day One” made a grave miscalculation with its advertising. Scenes were filmed with the intention of putting them in the trailers, but not the movie. This way, when people saw the movie, they wouldn’t be able to properly anticipate the surprises and story progression.

To that end, the advertising succeeded, I was indeed thrown off while watching the movie. But here’s where they didn’t succeed: the scenes shot just for the trailers were terrible, with clumsy dialogue and careless pacing. I was so mad at Hollywood for continuing this series without the creative vision of director John Krasinski, especially when the movie looked like garbage without his input.

I only saw this movie out of obligation for the column, and I wouldn’t be surprised if fans of the series stayed away entirely because of those awful trailers. But it turns out that not only is this movie better than the trailers, but it’s also better than the two installments that Krasinski directed.

“Day One” casts aside the familiar Abbott family in favor of new protagonist Sam (Lupita Nyong’o). Sam is a cancer patient taking a trip from her hospice to Manhattan along with her nurse Reuben (Alex Wolff) and service cat Frodo. Sam only agrees to the trip on the condition that the group stop for pizza at her favorite place in Harlem. The sudden invasion of echolocating aliens means a delay in pizza. Honestly, Sam is only interested in self-preservation to the end that it means eventual pizza.

Sam shelters in place for a bit with Reuben, who has a great scene where he stares down an alien like he’s staring down death itself. Also in the shelter is the familiar character Henri (Djimon Hounsou) from “Part II” of the series, here forced to make an unthinkable decision. She moves on to help some children in Central Park before finding a companion in anxious wreck Eric (Joseph Quinn). Can the two survive in alien-infested New York long enough to get a slice of pizza? If so, what happens after that?

“Day One” has the most suspense yet for a “Quiet Place” movie. It was scary enough that characters had to keep quiet to save their lives on a family farm or in a small town. But in New York, the noises are as big as the pizzas. Speaking of food, I wonder if the characters’ best bet for survival would be to let the aliens fill up on noisy people and then hope they’re too stuffed to give chase. Maybe that’s why the film’s biggest flaw is that the main characters get away with making as much noise as they do. Advertisement

The film does an excellent job of wringing scares out of not only the slightest sounds but also from loud-looking images. Even with everybody promising to be quiet, a crowd of people is going to make noise eventually, that’s just how crowds are. So if the characters find themselves as part of a crowd, the clock is already ticking. And that’s with a reasonable amount of effort being made. Some people just aren’t cut out for quiet, and associating with those people in this environment could prove fatal.

“A Quiet Place: Day One” had me afraid to breathe loudly in the theater, a testament to the film’s immersiveness. And yet, the suspenseful atmosphere is only the second-best thing about the movie. The real star here is, well, the star: Lupita Nyong’o. This movie doesn’t have returning players John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, or even recent Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy, and Nyong’o makes up for all of them.

One way or another, Sam doesn’t have much time left on this Earth, but you’ll want to be there for every moment. It took until nearly the exact halfway point of the year, but I think we have our first serious contender for an acting Oscar. Not bad for a movie whose advertising had me thinking it would be one of the worst films of the year.

Grade: B “A Quiet Place: Day One” is rated PG-13 for terror and violent content/bloody images. Its running time is 100 minutes.

Contact Bob Garver at [email protected].

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The Quiet Girl

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Watch The Quiet Girl with a subscription on Hulu, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

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A remarkable debut for writer-director Colm Bairéad, The Quiet Girl offers a deceptively simple reminder that the smallest stories can leave a large emotional impact.

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SPOILER WARNING : This story discusses plot points from “ A Quiet Place: Day One ,” now playing in theaters.

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“What makes this story compelling is that Sam is a character at the beginning of this movie that’s facing mortality in a way that we do not expect of a horror film, ‘What happens when life is slipping away from you any way, and then there’s an alien invasion?'” Nyong’o told Variety , reflecting on the characters’ final moments. “She goes on a journey that, in a sense, the creatures give her a new lease of life in a way and she learns to value life while she has it.”

Why did you want this movie to be your follow up after “Pig?”

I thought a lot about what I wanted to do after “Pig.” I avoided a lot of things. I wasn’t actively looking for a studio thing. I was kind of actively avoiding that. But with this movie, John and Paramount seemed really willing to give me the freedom to explore a character that otherwise would be pretty unconventional to explore in a movie like this. I just fell in love with the idea of Sam’s character, and seeing the world through her eyes. It just seemed really exciting to get to explore a character like her on a large scale like this.

Filming took place in London. How were you able to pull off those shots of the Empire State Building and then the Brooklyn Bridge burning down?

It’s a combination of things. There’s beautiful effects from Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), but we also did some helicopter shoots in New York. It was the first time I’ve ever been on a helicopter — it was terrifying. We did some portrait shots there.

One of the few sequences that we got to shoot in New York City was Sam driving across the bridge into the city, which we could have done with blue screen or many different options. But I thought it would be really nice to believe the entrance into New York so that everything else falls into place.

Did Djimon Hounsou know of the “Day One” prequel before he signed on to “A Quiet Place Part II,” since he is the connective tissue between the two movies?

The idea behind the “Day One” prequel was the speech that he gives in “Part II”. And I don’t really know if it was the chicken or the egg situation, if that was the spark of the idea. I’m not really sure. I know his character is intimately connected with the idea of a “Day One” movie.

Did you and John talk about Henri’s backstory?

No, John gave me a lot of freedom there. When you meet Henri on the island, he’s a leader of this community. I thought it’d be fun to get a glimpse into the beginning of what it took to get to that place of peace, and see that he probably had to make some really difficult decisions leading there. John gave me a lot of freedom to have at it and use the mystery and explore as much as I wanted to.

You worked with Alex Wolff on “Pig,” and cast him as Reuben, one of the hospice nurses. His death in this movie was brutal. What was the decision to have him killed off early in the film? What was his reaction to reading the script?

I wrote a character and then realized, “Wow, it’d be a great character for Alex,” and now I’m worried not to write something for him because he’s sort of my good luck charm. I love working with him.

Did Eric and Frodo really make it out alive?

I think they did. They earned it. I’d like to imagine that they’re safe somewhere, whether it’s on the island or elsewhere. They found a little bit of peace — for now.

Where is the boat going to at the end of the movie?

Who knows what exactly it’s going take to get there. Clearly, at least some of those people end up on the island that we saw in “Part II.” I’m sure their trials and tribulations aren’t over. But, in my mind, some of those people are eventually getting there.

Let’s talk about Sam’s fate. Nyong’o said that she believes the apocalypse gave Sam this new lease of life and allowed her to value life more now. What are your thoughts about that?

That’s very much what we were going for — this idea that a dying person who had counted themselves out of life is finding a new light in the apocalypse, in the depth of the world around them. There’s this unexpected journey of when everything’s crumbling and everything seems to be ending, Sam manages to find one last little moment to cherish and enjoy and some last bit of connection in the world. If the world hadn’t ended, she never would have gotten to have that ending for herself.

Sam’s death mirrored John Krasinski’s character at the end of the “A Quiet Place,” where he also sacrifices himself. Did you discuss the similarities there?

We definitely talked about how, on paper, this is two characters that are committing suicide. It’s just for very different reasons. That scene with John is beautiful — that he sacrifices himself for his kids. There was something fun about doing something similar, but purely for yourself and your own agency, and something that you’ve discovered in yourself. Doing a sacrificial death at the end, that might have stepped on the toes of the first one a little more, but Sam finds it so much in her own way that it has a different resonance. Both, I hope, are beautiful, but I like to think that it rings on its own.

Could we see a sequel, “ A Quiet Place: Day Two “ ?

Absolutely. I bet you will. But I don’t know — at this point, I’m just recovering from making this one. So I’m sure Paramount will come up with something very fun next.

What would you like to see?

What attracted me to this story was the uniqueness of Sam, following this dying person who isn’t even really fighting for survival. So, I would want to see something similarly off-beat, like an unexpected character in this world. The “Quiet Place” universe does open itself up to any characters that you want to follow and want to explore. I’m not sure. I put so much into Sam and Eric. That was all the love and care that I had right now to find these characters. I would have to think of a character that I could really fall in love with and really want to be surprised by seeing the world through their eyes.

“A Quiet Place Part III” is slated to come out next year. What do you know about that?

What characters in the franchise do you think could get their own spin off?

Almost any character could. You could easily follow prequels or sequels of any of the characters. They’ve done a really good job casting incredible actors in this franchise. I would watch Cillian Murphy do anything. There’s plenty of options.

I always fall back on an animated musical Frodo singing his way through this world, so that’s always an option. 

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, black writers week, the quiet american.

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The Englishman is sad and lonely. He suffers from the indignity of growing too old for romance while not yet free of yearning. He is in love for one last time. He doesn't even fully understand it is love until he is about to lose it. He is a newspaper correspondent in Saigon, and she is a dance-hall girl 30 or 40 years younger. She loves him because he pays her to. This arrangement suits them both. He tells himself he is "helping" her. Well, he is, and she is helping him.

His name is Fowler, and he is played by Michael Caine in a performance that seems to descend perfectly formed. There is no artifice in it, no unneeded energy, no tricks, no effort. It is there. Her name is Phuong ( Do Hai Yen ), and like all beautiful women who reveal little of their true feelings, she makes it possible for him to project his own upon her. He loves her for what he can tell himself about her.

Between them steps Alden Pyle ( Brendan Fraser ), the quiet young American who has come to Vietnam, he believes, to save it. Eventually he also believes he will save Phuong. Young men like old ones find it easy to believe hired love is real, and so believe a girl like Phuong would prefer a young man to an old one, when all youth represents is more work.

Graham Greene's novel The Quiet American (1955) told the story of this triangle against the background of America's adventure in Vietnam in the early 1950s--when, he shows us, the CIA used pleasant, presentable agents like Pyle to pose as "aid workers" while arranging terrorist acts that would justify our intervention there.

The novel inspired a 1958 Hollywood version in which the director Joseph Mankiewicz turned the story on its head, making Fowler the bad guy and Pyle the hero. Did the CIA have a hand in funding that film? Stranger things have happened: The animated version of "Animal Farm" (1948) was paid for by a CIA front, and twisted Orwell's fable about totalitarianism both East and West into a simplistic anti-communist cartoon.

Now comes another version of "The Quiet American," this one directed by the Australian Phillip Noyce and truer to the Greene novel. It is a film with a political point of view, but often its characters lose sight of that, in their fascination with each other and with the girl. A question every viewer will have to answer at the end is whether a final death is the result of moral conviction, or romantic compulsion.

The film is narrated by Caine's character, in that conversational voice weary with wisdom; we are reminded of the tired cynicism of the opening narration in the great film of Greene's The Third Man . Pyle has "a face with no history, no problems," Fowler tells us; his own face is a map of both. "I'm just a reporter," he says. "I offer no point of view, I take no action, I don't get involved." Indeed, he has scarcely filed a story in the past year for his paper, the Times of London; he is too absorbed in Phuong, and opium.

The irony is that Pyle, who he actually likes at first, jars him into action and involvement. What he finally cannot abide is the younger man's cheerful certainty that he is absolutely right: "Saving the country and saving a woman would be the same thing to a man like that." As luck would have it, "The Quiet American" was planned for release in the autumn of 2001. It was shelved after 9/11, when Miramax president Harvey Weinstein decided, no doubt correctly, that the national mood was not ripe for a film pointing out that the United States is guilty of terrorist acts of its own. Caine appealed to Weinstein, who a year later allowed the film to be shown at the Toronto Film Festival, where it was so well received by the public and critics that Miramax opened it for Oscar consideration in December. Now it goes into national release, on what appears to be the eve of another dubious war.

It would be unfortunate if people went to the movie, or stayed away, because of its political beliefs. There is no longer much controversy about the CIA's hand in stirring the Vietnam pot, and the movie is not an expose but another of Greene's stories about a worn-down, morally exhausted man clinging to shreds of hope in a world whose cynicism has long since rendered him obsolete. Both men "love" Phuong, but for Pyle she is less crucial. Fowler, on the other hand, admits: "I know I'm not essential to Phuong, but if I were to lose her, for me that would be the beginning of death." What Phuong herself thinks is not the point with either man, since they are both convinced she wants them.

Fraser, who often stars as a walking cartoon (" Dudley Do-Right ," " George of the Jungle ") has shown in other pictures, like " Gods and Monsters ," that he is a gifted actor, and here he finds just the right balance between confidence and blindness: What he does is evil, but he is convinced it is good, and has a simple, sunny view that maddens an old hand like Fowler. The two characters work well together because there is an undercurrent of commonality: They are both floating in the last currents of colonialism, in which life in Saigon can be very good, unless you get killed.

Noyce made two great pictures close together, this one and " Rabbit-Proof Fence ," which I reviewed last December. He feels anger as he tells this story, but he conceals it, because the story as it stands is enough. Some viewers will not even intercept the political message. It was that way with Greene: The politics were in the very weave of the cloth, not worth talking about. Here, in a rare Western feature shot in Vietnam, with real locations and sets that look well-worn enough to be real, with wonderful performances, he suggests a world view more mature and knowing than the simplistic pieties that provide the public face of foreign policy.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

The Quiet American (2003)

Rated R For Images Of Violence and Some Language

118 minutes

Michael Caine as Thomas Fowler

Brendan Fraser as Alden Pyle

Do Hai Yen as Phuong

Rade Sherbedgia as Inspector Vigot

Tzi Ma as Hinh

Robert Stanton as Joe Tunney

Holmes Osborne as Bill Granger

Quang Hai as General The

Ferdinand Hoang as Mr. Muoi

Directed by

• Phillip Noyce
• Christopher Hampton
• Robert Schenkkan

Based On The Novel by

• Graham Greene

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A Quiet Place: Day One review: a shockingly tense and moving sci-fi prequel

“With its reflective, unexpectedly introspective story, director Michael Sarnoski's A Quiet Place: Day One is the rare prequel that doesn't feel like a waste of time.”

• Joseph Quinn and Lupita Nyong'o's endearing lead performances
• Michael Sarnoski's character-first screenplay
• A cathartic, immensely satisfying third act
• A few action scenes feel forced
• A second act that occasionally drags

The transition from independent film to blockbuster moviemaking isn’t always kind to directors. In Hollywood’s current, franchise-obsessed era, that’s become especially true. While plenty of filmmakers have made the leap in recent years, only a handful of them (ex. Jordan Peele, Greta Gerwig) have been able to successfully bring their own distinct voices and perspectives to the franchise or blockbuster movies they’ve made. There were, therefore, reasons to wonder whether Pig director Michael Sarnoski would really be able to deliver  A Quiet Place: Day One as a film that actually felt like it was made by him, rather than by committee.

Lo and behold, that’s exactly what Sarnoski has done. The filmmaker’s follow-up to his acclaimed, Nicolas Cage-led 2021 directorial debut is a heartfelt, uncompromising thriller that frequently feels more like a grounded relationship drama than an apocalyptic alien invasion movie. With it, Sarnoski has effectively added more tools to his toolkit without sacrificing the aspects of his filmmaking that made Pig not only stand out from the rest of 2021’s movies but actually seem like the announcement of a new, truly promising writer-director.

Set before the main events of its franchise’s first two installments, A Quiet Place: Day One follows Sam (Lupita Nyong’o), a sickly woman who accepts an invitation from Reuben (Alex Wolff), a kind hospice worker, to take a quick day trip with a few of her fellow patients into New York City. While there, Sam’s plan to buy one last slice of authentic NYC pizza is turned upside down by the sudden, violent invasion of blind aliens that kill any human they hear. Trapped in one of the loudest cities in the world, Sam is forced to decide where her priorities lie as she and her scene-stealer of a cat, Frodo, try to make it across the Big Apple without making any discernible noises or dying.

Along the way, the pair are joined by Eric ( Stranger Things season 4 breakout star Joseph Quinn ), a British law student who — after nearly dying in a flooded subway tunnel — latches onto Sam and Frodo like they’re his life preservers. As Sam and Eric slowly grow closer together throughout Day One ‘s second half, the film inevitably calls to mind other postapocalyptic blockbusters like Children of Men and Logan , both of which similarly center around protagonists whose reluctance to connect with anyone else is gradually eroded. While the arc of Sam and Eric’s relationship is one that viewers have seen before, though, Day One makes it work.

Quinn and Nyong’o each give profoundly likable, charismatic performances as two characters whose lives could not be more different. Whereas Sam has seemingly little left in front of her when Day One begins, Eric is still waiting for his life to start. This difference allows the film’s leads to simultaneously complement and stand apart from each other. Quinn’s performance is one of rattled nerves and quiet disbelief; Nyong’o’s conveys the deeper, more resigned pain of someone who has had to come to terms with her world ending long before it did for anyone else. When Eric whispers, “This wasn’t part of the plan,” during a memorable scene around Day One ‘s midpoint, Sarnoski mines every ounce of emotion he can out of a subsequent cut to Nyong’o’s face as she silently responds with a look of pure, heartbroken understanding.

It is, unsurprisingly, in A Quiet Place: Day One ‘s quieter (no pun intended) scenes of connection and reflection that Sarnoski shines the most as a director. Working again with his Pig cinematographer, Pat Scola, Sarnoski hinges many of Day One ‘s biggest scenes on close-ups that understand just how powerfully expressive Quinn and Nyong’o are as performers. The film, consequently, emerges as the rare sci-fi blockbuster that isn’t oblivious to the power of the human face. Visually, Sarnoski brings his character-first approach to both Day One ‘s less-explosive scenes and its biggest set pieces, some of which are less nerve-shredding than you’d hope but all of which manage to beautifully use simple reaction shots to generate considerable levels of tension.

The film’s script, which Sarnoski penned alone from a story by him and A Quiet Place director John Krasinski, manages to find a mostly satisfying balance of action and human drama. Its back half, specifically, finds a pleasing rhythm that Sarnoski and editors Gregory Plotkin and Andrew Mondshein do their best to maintain for as long and consistently as they can. Sometimes, their efforts to do so lead to action sequences, such as a life-threatening detour taken by Quinn’s Eric to save Sam’s cat from an alien nest, that feel shoehorned in for the sake of briefly generating tension. However, the film doesn’t make this mistake enough times to result in it overstaying its welcome.

A Quiet Place: Day One sticks to its lean 99-minute runtime and yet still manages to organically build to a conclusion that is as emotionally cathartic as it is narratively satisfying. In doing so, the film demonstrates — just in case it wasn’t already clear — a firm understanding on Sarnoski’s part of what ultimately matters most, even in a movie as big and high-concept as his latest. Day One is an often stunningly made prequel that doesn’t concern itself with tedious tasks like further fleshing out the details of its franchise’s dystopian future or making unnecessary references to its two predecessors.

The film isn’t interested in anything other than its characters’ respective stories, and that allows it to achieve a profundity that is both unexpected and welcome. Not only is it the rare prequel that actually deserves to exist, but whether it’s making you jump in fear or cry, A Quiet Place: Day One has the power to take your breath away.

A Quiet Place: Day One is now playing in theaters.

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The quiet man, common sense media reviewers.

Old-fashioned charmer for the family.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Some prejudice against Sean as an American and an

Great depictions of religious tolerance between Ca

Fist-fighting, but very mild by modern interpretat

References (fairly subtle) to the fact that Mary K

A lot of drinking in pubs, references to Michaelee

Parents need to know that some critics have claimed that this is an anti-feminist movie, but that is a very superficial perspective. There's a flashback to Sean's professional boxing career, in which he accidentally killed another boxer, the reason he is reluctant to fight in Ireland. References to ability of married…

Positive Messages

Some prejudice against Sean as an American and an outsider.

Positive Role Models

Great depictions of religious tolerance between Catholics and Protestants that still is relevant today.

Violence & Scariness

Fist-fighting, but very mild by modern interpretations.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

References (fairly subtle) to the fact that Mary Kate and Sean do not sleep together following their wedding.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

A lot of drinking in pubs, references to Michaeleen's "terrible thirst," drunkenness.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that some critics have claimed that this is an anti-feminist movie, but that is a very superficial perspective. There's a flashback to Sean's professional boxing career, in which he accidentally killed another boxer, the reason he is reluctant to fight in Ireland. References to ability of married couples to hit each other. Some prejudice against Sean as an American and an outsider. Very nice depiction of religious tolerance, as the Catholic priest tells his parishioners to pretend they are congregants of the Protestant minister, so he can impress his bishop with how many members he has in his congregation. Brief references to a (non-violent) IRA. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (3)
• Kids say (5)

Based on 3 parent reviews

Learn from the past

What's the story.

In THE QUIET MAN, tall American Sean Thornton (John Wayne) arrives in Innisfree, Ireland, where he was born, to buy back his family home and settle there. Over the objections of "Squire" Will Danaher (Victor McLaglen), a huge firey man, Sean buys the cottage, called White O'Morning, from the wealthy Widow Tillane (Mildred Natwick). Sean sees Will's sister, Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O'Hara) out in a field and is immediately struck by her. He approaches her as he would an American girl, but customs are different in Ireland and if he wants to court Mary Kate, he must do it according to the rules and with the permission of her brother. Thus begins Sean's troublesome courtship of Mary, in which her pride, and her dowry, come into play.

Is It Any Good?

Some critics have claimed that this is an anti-feminist movie, but that is a very superficial perspective. The furniture and money are important to Mary Kate because she wants to enter the relationship as an equal. She believes that without them she will be to Sean what she was in Will's house, just someone to do the work. She says, "Until I've got my dowry safe about me, I'm no married woman. I'm the servant I've always been, without anything of my own!" But it is just as important to Sean to let her know that what he cares about is his love for her, and that alone is enough to make her an equal partner.

Sean also has to conquer his fear of fighting, which requires him to open up emotionally. As "Trouper Thorn," a professional boxer in the U.S., he accidentally killed an opponent in the ring. This left him afraid to let go. In fights with Will and Mary Kate he learns that he can let go physically and emotionally and strengthen his relationships.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how Sean and Mary Kate loved each other very much, but had a hard time understanding each other. Why was Mary Kate's dowry so important to her? How did Sean show he understood that? Why did they burn the money? Was that a good way to solve the problem of the dowry for both of them? How did Sean's friends persuade Mary Kate's brother to let Sean marry her? Was that fair? Why did Sean and Will like each other better after fighting each other?

Movie Details

• In theaters : September 14, 1952
• On DVD or streaming : March 23, 1999
• Cast : Barry Fitzgerald , John Wayne , Maureen O'Hara
• Director : John Ford
• Studio : Twentieth Century Fox
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 129 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : May 9, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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