THE QUIET ROOM
A film review by Jon Lerma
Copyright 1997 Jon Lerma
The Quiet room is a great film. It is about a little girl who retreats into herself to help cope with her parents squabing(fightin with words i mean). If you dont mind watchin a film comprised mosltly of dialogue( by way of voicover) and dig sentamentality and all that and just can sit through a whole movie without gettin up and shite go see this movie its real good.
Now this is where i get real nitty gritty. First off the movies acting is strong and subdued. I read that the actress playing the little girl is a non pro but her performance is good and actually lends to the enjoyment(ie. it does not bother like watching those dreadful soap kids go "Mommy i miss Greg!"). The rest of the cast(which is small mom dad carpet cleaners lady and babysitter) also give performances which although will not garantee oscar(and why not jus cause there is no gut wrenchin cry scenes oh wait there are then oscar here we come) they more than live up to the script and never hinder the movie in any way.
Okay now for what i really think. The cinematography(sic) was awesome. The camera pans and shots just have to be seen not to flashy and all but still very nonhooptyclandestinecool. The colors the colors. they just rock out. A great thing of this movie is how there is humor( in the form of the girls little mind quips of observation) and it really helps to balence out the obvious sobriety and sadness of this film.
HAPPY ENDING ALERT: okay why did i put this well i dont know for some strange reason some people hate happy endings i love them but anyways this film has a sort of happy ending so ...
Other reviews Ive read have given that the girl is a little too world weary or insightful that we do not know why the parents are fighting and blah blah blah....
For the record i thought the girls thoughts were believable and although they seemed insightful they were really just dead on observations that rang true and her conclusions had no special beyond her years insight she in short thinks like a child not an adult. I also felt that the arguments of the parents came off really well never over really big things(ie "you drink too mich george" or " are you cheatin on me martha") but rather start over the ridiculous, which in my experience is how it happens.
The only flaws is that it does run long towards the end in some parts in that without patience the film tends to drag. Not the whole end of the film mind you just certain parts but if you wait a bit the film resumes its greatness. There is no solid narrative and the end is only apparent once your there so that might be a reason for the feeling of longness.
So go see this film. I really have no touchstones of other similar films( at least non come to mind) except like mabye 'radio flyer' with a style hint of 'the young poisoners handbook' which is really unfair to this film(not a downer to those films though i loved those two also).
NOTE: This was my first review hope it wasnt to dreadful or longwinded or whatever....
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