Movie Review: ‘The Silent Hour’

Opening in limited release on October 11th, ‘The Silent Hour’ is proof that one intriguing element is no guarantee that a thriller won’t turn out to be rote and mostly bland despite a decent cast.

It’s even more surprising coming from a director such as Brad Anderson, who has made the far more striking and interesting likes of ‘The Machinist’ and ‘Transsiberian.’

Related Article: Joel Kinnaman Talks ‘Silent Night’ and Working with Director John Woo

Will ‘The Silent Hour’ make itself heard?

(L to R) Joel Kinnaman and Sandra Mae Frank in ‘The Silent Hour’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

With the feel of a straight-to-home entertainment movie cranked out on the cheap, ‘The Silent Hour’ doesn’t really have too much that makes it stand out, and too little to recommend it besides to Joel Kinnaman completists.

It’s predictable and workmanlike, with decent performances, but rarely rises above the blandly basic in terms of its story or action.

Script and Direction

(L to R) Joel Kinnaman and Mark Strong in ‘The Silent Hour’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

The movie appears to be the first produced credit for writer Dan Hall, and indeed the finished product does bear some hallmarks of a first-time writer whose early drafts ended up on screen.

‘The Silent Hour’s characters are serviceable at best, and perfunctory at worst –– the vast majority of them exist to be archetypes or plot devices, and even Ava, who is one of the lead characters, is mostly reduced to being a damsel in distress.

Director Brad Anderson has certainly made better movies than this in his career, and while he shows a few flashes of the stylish, gritty flair he’s brought to those (he does, for example, make good use of the claustrophobic setting of the near-abandoned apartment building).

And as a filmmaker who has gotten astonishing performances from actors before, this time he appears stuck in a rut.

Performances

Joel Kinnaman scores the lion’s share of the screen time, but beyond his condition, it’s hard to really empathize with his situation.

Joel Kinnaman as Frank Shaw

Joel Kinnaman in ‘The Silent Hour’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

We’ve seen Kinnaman in gimmicky thrillers such as this before –– last year found him as a voiceless, vengeful, grieving father in John Woo’s ‘Silent Night’, but that at least boasted the filmmaker’s singular, stylish eye for action.

Here, while the idea of a cop whose hearing is failing following an accident is sufficiently interesting at first, the character offers little for the actor to really dig into. His reliance on his less-than-proficient sign language and his sparky partnership with Sandra Mae Frank’s Ava work, but they’re not enough to support a film that has other, major issues.

Sandra Mae Frank as Ava

(L to R) Sandra Mae Frank and Joel Kinnaman in ‘The Silent Hour’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Frank is a deaf actor who campaigns for deaf performers to be cast in more roles, but here it still feels like she is used as a gimmick more than a layered character. As a drug-using occupant of a condemned apartment building, she spends most of her time being threatened or saved by the men around her.

Mekhi Pfifer as Lynch

Mekhi Phifer in ‘The Silent Hour’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Pfifer can bring nuance and subtlety when he’s given a chance, but the character of the gruff crooked cop who leads a group of similarly on-the-take officers gives him little chance to show that off.

Instead, he’s reduced to barking orders, swearing and firing a gun (it’s somewhat hilarious that this movie’s villains have almost ‘A-Team’ levels of inability to shoot straight), or running around the apartment block looking for Kinnaman’s character.

Mark Strong as Doug

Mark Strong in ‘The Silent Hour’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Playing Kinnaman’s partner, Strong is also fairly wasted. Introduced as the friendly, jokey best-pal cop, he largely disappears from the movie for large stretches of it, until called upon to return.

Strong is a much better actor than this movie deserves, and though he does his best with what is on offer, even his talent can’t make it work.

Supporting cast

(L to R) Joel Kinnaman and Mark Strong in ‘The Silent Hour’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Most of the other characters are entirely forgettable; a bunch of baddies who run around and shoot guns (as mentioned above, badly) and shout vulgarity while trying to achieve their crooked aims. Frank’s daughter Sam, played by Katrina Lupi, primarily serves the purpose of being his concerned cheerleader in a couple of brief scenes. Her role falls to a cliched level we’ve seen many, many times before.

Final Thoughts

Joel Kinnaman in ‘The Silent Hour’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

The idea of a cop who has to deal with failing hearing and comes up against corrupt colleagues should really have made for a more interesting movie than this.

And given the talent involved –– particularly Anderson –– it feels like even more of a disappointment. The resulting film is akin to watching a good-looking car driving past that sounds like a broken-down jalopy; there’s a real sense of cognitive dissonance.

There are much better thrillers out there in the world, and much more nuanced treatments of deafness on screen, where people who live with it are not just used as props.

‘The Silent Hour’ receives 5.5 out of 10 stars.

What’s the plot of ‘The Silent Hour’?

Frank Shaw (Joel Kinnaman) is a Boston detective who, after a line-of-duty accident, loses his hearing. Frustrated with his new life, Frank contemplates leaving the police force, but his partner Doug (Mark Strong) convinces him to prove he can still be a great cop.

With his new role as a sign language interpreter for the department, Frank is now tasked with protecting Ava (Sandra Mae Frank), a deaf woman witness to a double murder.

Who is in the cast of ‘The Silent Hour’?

• Joel Kinnaman as Frank Shaw
• Sandra Mae Frank as Ava
• Mekhi Phifer as Lynch
• Mark Strong as Doug Slater

(L to R) Sandra Mae Frank and Joel Kinnaman in ‘The Silent Hour’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

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