Synopsis
After her widowed father dies, deaf teenager Dot moves in with her godparents, Olivia and Paul Deer. The Deers' daughter, Nina, is openly hostile to Dot, but that does not prevent her from telling her secrets to her silent stepsister, including the fact that she wants to kill her lecherous father.
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Cast
- Elisha CuthbertNina Deer
- Camilla BelleDot
- Martin DonovanPaul Deer
- Edie FalcoOlivia Deer
- Shawn AshmoreConnor
- Katy MixonMichelle Fell
- David GallagherBrian
- Shannon WoodwardFiona
- Maria CashMrs. Feltswatter
- Jo BakerMyrna
Recommendations
- 50
The A.V. Club
The few effective scenes in The Quiet suggest that the film might have worked as a kinked-up Hitchcockian thriller rather than the drab, serious drama it turns out to be. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
An unconvincing and uninvolving psychological thriller. - 40
Village Voice
Thematically the movie never reaches beyond the ready-for-prime-time mentality that specializes in psychological shorthand. - 40
Salon
Babbit is skilled at creating atmosphere and mood, all of it creepy or sodden, and actresses Elisha Cuthbert and Camilla Belle put their hearts into their roles, which are, unfortunately, encased in a sleazoid TV movie of the week tarted up in art-school clothes. - 40
The Hollywood Reporter
This ludicrously plotted drama of incestuous sexual abuse is only partially redeemed by its strong performances. - 30
Variety
A Lifetime movie on crack, The Quiet dredges up every lurid cliche from the well of teen hormonal havoc in a tale of dysfunctional family meltdown that seems unsure whether to push for suburban-Gothic psychosexual excess or tongue-in-cheek malevolence. - 30
The New York Times
Neither ambitious enough to take seriously nor sleazy enough to enjoy, The Quiet flirts with the trappings of exploitation cinema without going all the way. - 30
Los Angeles Times
It never quite settles on whether it's a "Mean Girls" burlesque of teen life, an "American Beauty"-style bad-things-in-the-suburbs drama, or a wayward horror film. And it certainly never reconciles itself to successfully pulling off a hybrid of the three.
