SPEAK NO EVIL : Tuesday 17th September 2024

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'SPEAK NO EVIL' earlier this week at my local multiplex, and this American psychological thriller film is Written for the screen and Directed by James Watkins whose previous film making efforts take in his debut in 2008 with 'Eden Lake', and which he would follow up with 'The Woman in Black' in 2012 and 'Bastille Day' in 2016. This film is a remake of the Danish film from 2022 Co-Written and Directed by Christian Tafdrup. Released in the US and here in Australia last week the film has garnered generally positive critical reviews and has so far grossed US$24M from a production budget of US$15M.

The film opens up in the Italian countryside where we are introduced to an American holidaying family Louise and Ben Dalton (Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy respectively) and their eleven year old daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler). While there, they meet and become fast friends with British couple Paddy and Ciara (James McAvoy and Aisling Franciosi respectively) and their eight year old son Ant (Dan Hough). We learn that the Dalton family recently relocated to London for Ben to open an office for his Chicago based company, but at the last minute the job was shelved and he was made redundant and is now unemployed. Sometime later a postcard arrives from Paddy and Ciara inviting the Daltons to their remote farmhouse in the Devon countryside. The family decides to go, hoping the change of scenery will be good for them and for Agnes who suffers bouts of anxiety and is attached, despite her age, to a stuffed rabbit toy. 

After a long drive from London down to the West Country they finally arrive at the farmhouse after dark. The Dalton's are warmly welcomed but as they spend more time at the house, they begin to grow increasingly ill at ease by strange incidents and the passive-aggressive behaviour from their hosts that cross boundaries of what would be considered acceptable. Louise is also troubled by Paddy and Ciara's aggressive treatment of Ant whom they learn was born with a condition that left him with a smaller tongue and without the ability to speak. One evening, the adults go out for dinner, leaving Agnes and Ant in the care of a babysitter named Muhjid (Motaz Mulhees) which unnerves the Daltons. While playing hide and seek in the farmhouse with Muhjid, Ant shows Agnes a collection of watches Paddy has and a message written in a foreign language, but Agnes doesn't understand him. 

At dinner, Paddy questions Louise's vegetarianism and jokingly performs a sex act with Ciara, shocking their guests. Upon returning, Louise later that night discovers Agnes has been moved to share a bed with a drunken Paddy, Ciara and Ant. Horrified, the Dalton's steal themselves away very early the next morning, but are forced to return by Agnes who left behind her stuffed rabbit, and is having an anxiety attack in the back of the car.

Upon retrieving the toy, Paddy and Ciara who are awake by the time they return apologise for their behaviour and indirectly accuse the Daltons of judging them. The Daltons decide to stay in order to maintain the peace but the strange behaviour continues, unsettling the family. After an incident where Paddy throws a mug at Ant for repeatedly failing to keep time with a dance routine that he and Agnes had practiced, he steals a set of keys from a passed out Paddy and leads Agnes to a locked shed, with an underground bunker. Inside is a collection of luggage and the personal belongings of numerous families. Using a photo book, Ant reveals to Agnes that Paddy and Ciara are not his real parents but are serial killers who lure families to their farmhouse, rob and kill them before cutting out their children's tongue and using them to assist in luring their next victims. 

Ant shows Agnes a photo of his family depicting Ant with his tongue poking out and then motioning with his fingers a scissors action across his mouth, implying that this has happened to him and his family and that Paddy and Ciara intend to make the Daltons their next victims. Agnes fakes having her first period and manages to get Louise and Ben alone to explain the situation. Horrified, the family decides to leave, calmly so as not to arouse any suspicions and contact the Police to save Ant. 

Paddy and Ciara, realise that they have been figured out, and so puncture a tyre on the Daltons car, and hide Agnes's bunny high up in the guttering of the farmhouse to delay them, subtly mocking them as they do so. When the Daltons do finally drive off after Paddy repaired the tyre, Paddy throws Ant, who can't swim, into a pond. Ben sees this from his rear view mirror and jumps to the rescue of Ant before a gun-wielding Paddy and Ciara capture them. 

Paddy forces Louise to transfer their savings to their account, while Ciara holds Ben and Agnes at gunpoint before preparing to kill them and cut out Agnes's tongue. A struggle ensues, as Louise slashes at Paddy's face with a box cutter she found in the farmhouse. Paddy is injured and the family and Ant flee into the house. Paddy, Ciara, and their accomplice Mike (Kris Hitchen), hunt for the family. Mike locates Ben and is able to overpower him, but Louise manages to kill Mike by planting a claw hammer firmly into his skull and save Ben before the family flees to the roof. Ciara makes her way to the roof, attacks but falls to her death. 

As the family tries to escape, Paddy emerges, holding Agnes at gunpoint. Agnes manages to inject Paddy with a syringe of ketamine which was intended for her but dropped by Paddy when Louise slashed at his face, incapacitating him. As the family go to leave, Ant approaches Paddy who acknowledges his fate by saying to Ant 'That's my boy'. An enraged Ant sits on top of Paddy's chest and repeatedly beats him to death with a brick out of revenge, while screaming for all his lungs will allow, with the Daltons looking on in horror. The Daltons and Ant leave the farmhouse. While they drive, Agnes gives her stuffed bunny to Ant, who sobs quietly.

About half way in you'll come to realise that there is something dramatically unhinged, disturbing and twisted about James McAvoy's character Paddy. Here, like in 2016's 'Split' from Writer and Director M. Night Shyamalan McAvoy gives a compelling performance that goes from affable Mr. Nice Guy to downright gonzo batshit crazy much like Jack Nicholson's character of Jack Torrance did in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 classic 'The Shining'. Having not seen the original Danish film I cannot draw comparisons, but suffice to say James Watkins has here crafted a suspenseful thriller that slowly ramps up the tension and the danger factor to a more than satisfactory conclusion that ultimately sees those fish outta water city types win the day over those morally corrupt country bumpkin serial killers. Certainly worth the price of your movie ticket.

'Speak No Evil' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE UNFORGIVABLE : Tuesday 30th November 2021.

'THE UNFORGIVABLE' which I saw at my local multiplex earlier this week is an M Rated American and German Co-Produced film Directed by Nora Fingscheidt following 2019's 'System Crasher' which picked up thirty-three wins and another twenty-five nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit. This film is based on the 2009 British three-part mini-series 'Unforgiven' by Sally Wainwright, and is Co-Produced by the films star Sandra Bullock and Veronica Ferres. The film went on a limited release from last week before streaming on Netflix from 10th December, and has generated mostly average Reviews.

The film opens up with Ruth Slater (Sandra Bullock) being given back her belongings and the sum of US$40 upon her release from prison after serving the bulk of her twenty year sentence for the shooting murder of Policeman Mac Whelan (W. Earl Brown) at her home on the outskirts of Seattle, when he arrived to enforce her eviction from her childhood home. She is collected from the prison gates by her parole officer Vincent Cross (Rob Morgan) and deposited at a hostel somewhere near Chinatown where she has to share a room with three other women. Whilst inside, she studied carpentry and has certificates to prove it, and has lined up work on a building site. Cross gives Slater a card from a fish processing plant and a guaranteed job there should things not work out. Needless to say, they don't work out, and so she ends up gutting, boning and prepping salmon to earn a crust and assimilate back into society. She has to report back to Cross every Tuesday at 11:00am, without fail. 

Slater, wants to connect with her much younger sister Katie (Aisling Franciosi) who was only five years of age when she was sent to prison, and has not heard from or seen in the past almost twenty years, despite writing hundreds of letters over the years. Katie seemingly has very little memory of her older sister other than sudden flashbacks of a woman cradling her in her arms. Katie now lives with her adoptive parents Michael and Rachel Malcolm (Richard Thomas and Linda Emond respectively) and their own daughter Emily (Emma Nelson), and has grown to be piano playing prodigy. 

Slater visits a library and goes on-line in an attempt to track down her sister. She decides to visit her old house and the scene of the crime to find that it has been recently purchased and upgraded by John and Liz Ingram (Vincent D'Onofrio and Viola Davis respectively) who now live there with their two teenage sons. Slater is seen standing in the grounds looking at the property by Liz who calls to John to go and investigate who the mystery woman is. Slater tells John that she once worked on the property, and John invites her in to have a look around. As she is about to leave, John offers her a lift to the bus station. In the car they talk and John believes that something is not quite right with Slater. She comes clean and tells him that she in fact lived in the property and has been in 'the system' for the last twenty years and is trying to track down her sister. It turns out that John is a corporate lawyer, and he gives her his business card with an offer to help.

While all this is going on, the two now adult sons of the murdered Policeman, Keith Whelan (Tom Guiry) and Steve Whelan (Will Pullen) are none too pleased that Slater is out and free. Keith wants to exact his revenge on Slater but Steve is dead set against the notion saying that he has a job, a life, a wife and a young child to consider. 

Slater contacts John Ingram and asks for his help in contacting Katie via her parents, and a meeting is set up between the four. Needless to say that meeting doesn't end well with the Malcolm's saying what good would it possibly serve Katie to be reunited with her sister, and Slater going off the rails at the prospect of them standing between Katie and her being reunited after all this time. 

In the meantime, Slater has got a carpenters job at a Chapel that is being converted by a NGO into a Community Hall for the homeless, as well as keeping down her job at the fish processing plant. At the plant she has developed a close relationship with fellow fish gutter Blake (Jon Bernthal), to whom she comes clean one day over a coffee and a plate of pancakes about her prison time and the fact that it was for murder. He is taken aback and distances himself from her, and later blabs about it to one of his fellow co-workers who then beats up Slater in the workplace for being a cop killer. Blake later comes clean telling her that he too is an ex-convict and was released eighteen months ago, and apologises. 

Meanwhile, Liz has learned of Slater's history and is furious at John for keeping this vital piece of news from her. Emily also overheard her parents talking about the pending meeting with Slater and John, and one day when the house is empty rummages through the basement looking for clues. She comes across boxes of the letters written by Slater to Katie which were never given to Katie. One such letter written most recently, contains Slater's mobile phone number. Emily calls Slater and arranges a meeting in a public place. Emily and Slater connect and after a brief chat, Emily tells her that she can see Katie at 4:00pm that afternoon at a piano recital. They part ways and little do the pair know that Steve Whelan is following Emily. Slater meanwhile tries to contact John Ingram to determine if she is legally allowed to visit the concert hall where Katie is playing later that afternoon, but she is told by his office that he is out traveling for the week on business. Slater visits their home again to try and track down John, and is met by Liz who promptly orders Slater off the property and reaffirms that John is away on business. The pair exchange words with Slater proclaiming that Katie was only five years old, and Liz having an 'oh shit' moment! 

Liz drives Slater to the concert hall in time for the 4:00pm recital, when Slater receives a call from Steve Whelan saying that he has Katie, with the sounds of muffled screams in the background. He orders Slater to come over immediately to his place of work. Liz drives Slater there and upon entering the designated building finds Emily tied and bound on the floor with Steve Whelan holding a gun to her head. Meanwhile, Katie has begun her piano recital with her parents looking on in the audience. 

Whelan orders Slater to lay down on the ground and then points the gun at her, saying that he is going to take her life away just as she took his fathers. However, in the final analysis, Whelan can't  go through with his revenge plan, and falls to the ground sobbing. Slater gets up, frees Emily and the pair leave just as the Police arrive, ordering Slater to get down on the ground. She is handcuffed, and Whelan is seen being walked out of the building by two Police Officers also handcuffed. A short time later Cross arrives and states his claim to his parolee and says that unless they intend to charge Slater then she is free to go, and she is. 

Walking back to his car, Michael, Rachel and Katie are by Emily's side as she is being tended to by an Ambulance crew. Slater observes this, Katie turns and the sisters make eye contact. Katie walks up to Slater, and the pair embrace. 

Throughout most of the almost two hour run time, Sandra Bullock's Ruth Slater parades around on screen with a solemn, sullen and scowl faced expression, only twice, from memory, barely breaking into what at best can be described as a smile. Here she is just about as far removed from her 'Miss Congeniality' character as you could imagine, and Viola Davis is completely wasted in the few meagre scenes she is afforded. The plot here clearly worked better as a three-part TV mini-series than it does in a feature length film with the series running for an extra twenty-five minutes in which to flesh out more character development, more of the back story and more of the several plot contrivances which in this film are hurried, all too fleeting, bordering on the nonsensical and with too many questions left unanswered by the time the end credits roll. On the plus side, Bullock, despite her dour expression throughout most of the film, here again proves her acting chops with more dramatic roles as she goes unkempt, sans make-up and portraying a truly broken character seeking redemption. 

'The Unforgivable' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.  

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE NIGHTINGALE : Tuesday 3rd September 2019.

'THE NIGHTINGALE' which I saw earlier this week, is an MA15+ rated Australian period piece thriller Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written by Jennifer Kent in only her second film making outing following 2014's highly acclaimed horror offering 'The Babadook'.  This film saw its World Premier screening at the Venice International Film Festival back in September 2018 where it won the Special Jury Prize, had its Australian Premier at the 2018 Adelaide Film Festival, saw its US release earlier in August and in Australia last week after its screening at the recent Sydney Film Festival too. It has so far received generally positive Reviews, although has divided audiences with its graphic depictions of rape and murder. Kent subsequently defended the decision to depict such violence, claiming that the film contains historically accurate representations of the colonial violence and racism that took place against the Australian Indigenous people of that time (circa 1825). The film was produced in collaboration with Tasmanian Aboriginal elders who feel that this is an honest and necessary depiction of their history, and a story that needs to be told.

Set in Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land) in 1825 and the early on-set of the Black War, Clare Carroll (Aisling Franciosi), a 21-year-old Irish convict is serving out her time working as a servant in some remote British military outpost overseen by Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam Claflin) and Sergeant Ruse (Damon Herriman). The unit is being visited by a commanding officer to determine if Hawkins is fit to be considered for promotion to the rank of Captain.

After her night shift has finished, with Clare serving the soldiers drinks and singing them a few songs, she asks Hawkins about her now long overdue letter of recommendation that would allow the family, husband Aidan (Michael Sheasby) and their baby child, their freedom. Hawkins takes her request as insolence and consequently rapes and beats her. The next night Aidan, liquored up, gets into a brawl with Hawkins, Ruse and a Private Jago (Harry Greenwood) while asking for the same letter of recommendation that Clare had enquired about the previous day. The commanding officer walks in on the brawl unfolding and bears witness to the whole sorry affair and determines that this, along with other acts of misconduct and inappropriate behaviour displayed by Hawkins and his small group of soldiers, deem him unfit for promotion.

Mightily pissed-off by this turn of events, Hawkins commands Ruse and Jago to gather supplies, a few extra convict men to help fetch and carry and a local black tracker named Charlie (Charlie Jampijinpa Brown) for an impromptu five day journey on foot through dangerous and near impenetrable bushland to the town of Launceston in order to secure his promotion via an officer contact he has there, and with whom he seems to have some sway. Before they leave early the next morning, the soldiers intercept the Carroll family attempting to flee. Hawkins taunts Aiden about the many occasions he’s had sex with Clare before he and Ruse gang rape Clare, shoot Aiden at point blank range in the neck, and Jago kills their baby and then knocks Clare unconscious with the butt end of his rifle. Clare comes round the next morning with the sight of her dead husband lying in a pool of blood and her baby's lifeless body on the hard stone floor by the door.

The next day Clare reports the incident to a suspicious Royal Military Police official, carrying the dead body of her baby, who is less than sympathetic - after all why should he believe the rantings of a convict woman over the story of Officers in the Army. She decides to seek out revenge for herself with a help of an Aboriginal tracker named Billy (Baykali Ganambarr) whom she entices with the promise of two shillings in payment. Clare is guarded about her motives and states that she wishes to catch-up with her soldier husband en route to Launceston. The travelling pair initially share a mutual hostility towards one another but begin to bond over stories about their tragic upbringings and shared hatred of the English.

Hawkins meanwhile en route with his small party takes a liking to one of the convicts, an eight year old orphan child named Eddie (Charlie Shotwell), and Ruse kidnaps an Aboriginal woman named Lowanna (Magnolia Maymuru) that he stumbled across in the bushland, to be used as a sex slave. The next day when a small group of Aboriginal men have located their missing Lowanna, they kill one of the convicts and injure Jago with a spear in the leg, in a rescue mission, but their attack proves unsuccessful as Hawkins shoots Lowanna in the back in retaliation. Clare and Billy stumble upon a limping and delirious Jago, and Clare corners and brutally kills him by stabbing him several times in the chest and smashing his face to a pulp with the butt-end of her rifle.

Billy has witnessed this and considers leaving Clare to her own devices in the dense forest, but works out her revenge motivations and decides to stay. Charlie meanwhile as the trusted tracker to Hawkins party, and as revenge for the soldiers' inhumanity, diverts the journey to a dead end on the summit of a mountain. Ruse kills Charlie but Hawkins chastises the rash decision and forces Ruse to be their guide on the way back down the mountain, handing over Ruse's former responsibilities to the eight year old Eddie. Clare and Billy come across Charlie’s body while tracing their steps, and Billy performs customary burial rites and informs Clare that he now seeks
revenge too for killing his Uncle figure.

Clare and Billy catch up with the group of four and hide behind a rocky outcrop. Armed with her rifle pointing directly at Hawkins, Clare freezes when she sees him, allowing Hawkins to retaliate fire grazing her shoulder with a shot from his rifle. Clare flees and the pair split up and are separated. Billy, however, is found and forced to be the new guide, replacing Charlie and a clueless Ruse. Billy reluctantly leads the soldiers to the main path to Launceston, at which point Hawkins commands Eddie to shoot Billy. The eight year old Eddie naturally hesitates, so allowing Billy to escape. Hawkins berates Eddie and turns his back on him saying that when he arrives in Launceston he will advise the local Police that there is a convict child running wild on the path into town. Eddie gets very upset by this threat and cries out for a second chance to prove his worth. Hawkins turns and shoots the boy dead to shut him up.

Having spent the night nestled under a tree in the forest hinterland of Launceston, Clare the next morning finds her way back onto the main path and reunites with Billy. While on their way, they come across what looks like an abandoned house. Entering they see a recently murdered couple in their bed having both suffered several gunshot wounds to the chest. From the house they take a rifle, some food and a change of clothes. Walking towards Launceston they encounter a chain gang of Aboriginals, led by three armed white fellas. In their native tongue Billy speaks of his origin and that he is seeking to reunite with his people in the north. One of the chained Aboriginals informs Billy that he is the last of his people, they had been wiped out and all killed. When the prisoner yells at his captors for their callousness, they shoot him and the others dead. Clare and Billy pass, on the pretext that Billy is Clare's prisoner and she is taking him to Launceston to see that justice is served on him.

In Launceston, Clare and Billy are sighted in the street by Hawkins and Ruse. Hawkins orders Ruse to notify the Police that a black boy is on the loose in town, and tells Clare that if he ever sees her again, he will have no hesitation in killing her. The newly promoted Hawkins joins his commanding officer in a men only bar for a welcome drink, at which point Clare bursts in and confronts Hawkins about his war crimes in front of a now silent bar full of fellow soldiers and officers all looking on. Billy watches through the window from a hiding spot. The two then flee town for the night. During the night while Clare is sleeping, Billy covers himself with white war paint and has carved two spears. He makes his way back to Launceston. By this time Clare has woken up and has given chase arriving in Launceston just as she spies Billy entering the hostel where Hawkins and Ruse are lodged. Billy first spears Hawkins right through the heart killing him instantly and then drives his second spear though Ruse's throat pinning him to a wall. Ruse however, before he died got off a single rifle shot wounding Billy in the stomach. Claire and Billy flee the commotion at the hostel on the back of Clare's horse which Hawkins has previously stolen from her. In time following the river, they arrive at a beach where Billy dances and declares himself a free man before slumping down on the wet sand as Clare sings a folk song and the two watch the sun rise over the horizon.

'The Nightingale' is a confronting film and at times an uneasy watch for its repeated rape scenes, violence and callous cold blooded murders of men, women and children mostly of native Australian origin, but also of white convicts for simply speaking up or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But, in choosing to depict such scenes of human depravity Director and Writer Jennifer Kent has captured the essence of that era in a story that has to be told as it resonates as much today as it did back then. Aisling Franciosi and Baykali Ganambarr give powerful and convincing performances, and Sam Claflin is definitely playing against type here and does so with a disturbing intensity. It's interesting to note that the depiction of the horrors that befell Australia's Indigenous population back in the days of early white settlement is particularly apposite given last weeks Reviewed 'The Australian Dream'. Kent has here shown that she is an Australian film maker to watch and that this is a very noteworthy follow up to her debut of five years ago, that will further cement her position as a master of her craft. My only criticism is that at a running time of 136 minutes, the film drags on for a little too long and consequently becomes a tad repetitive and predictable especially in the last half an hour, when shaving off 15 or 20 minutes in the editing suite would perhaps have served for greater coherence and less monotony.

'The Nightingale' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-