Movies are a powerful medium. So powerful in fact, that they can help change human behavior. People were terrified to go into the water after Jaws, the amount of requests of exorcisms went up after The Exorcist, and female applicants for law school went up after Legally Blonde. In comes a new entry into the canon, Speak No Evil, a movie that will hopefully encourage us all to know when to get the hell out of a bad situation and why you should not talk to anyone you don’t know while on vacation.
Ben and Louise are on vacation in Italy with their young daughter when a chance meeting with another family staying in the same villa brings the two families together. Hitting it off right away, they are invited to visit them in the English countryside. While Ben and Louise are initial a bit skeptical, they decide to visit. What begins as fun jaunt with friends slowly slides into a twisted mess.
While the thriller elements lead the way, in a surprising turn of events, what kept me wanting to see more was the dark humor. Speak No Evil is the year’s funniest thriller, it might just be the year’s funniest movie. This is a great testament to the script written by director James Watkins. It manages to wring so many laughs from jokes and from how increasingly uncomfortable the movie makes you. Even as you’re terrified, the movie is playing on all your senses, just like James McAvoy’s Paddy is doing to the other couple.
McAvoy is where the praise should start when it comes to the performances as it’s such a treat to see an actor be locked in with exactly what the movie needs at any moment. He’s ferocious, tender, comical, brutal, and all around fascinating to watch on screen. Mackenzie Davis, always a great screen presence, is the movie’s co-MVP. She puts on quite a show as a high strung mother whose past is ever present, but who also tries to see towards the future. Her facial expressions tell us so much, ad yet it’s when her character is trying to put on a good face that we see the true performance shine. While Scoot McNairy and Aisling Franciosi aren’t quite as towering as their other two compatriots, they are both equally as enjoyable finding the little nuances in their characters to help play off of the drama in the film.
Speak No Evil is certainly enjoyable (a delight I’m sure to all the many people who have seen the trailer for this film play many times this summer), though I do wonder if an even sharper edit or a more ruthless ending might have served the film better. Speak No Evil, for all of its many great qualities does manage to feel longer than it should. This film is about 13-15 mins longer than the original film and while that isn’t much in real time, that’s an eternity for a film whose plot hinges on finding ways to keep the two families together and twisted psychological games. A good guest does not overstay its welcome, and neither do the best movies.