Movie: A Quiet Place: Day One
Cast: Lupita Nyong`o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, Djimon Hounsou, Cain Aiden, Jennifer Woodward, Elijah Ungvary
Director: Michael Sarnoski
Rating: 2.5/5
Duration: 99 min.
This film, a prequel to the super successful Juan Krasinski The franchise-directed “A Quiet Place” hopes to recreate the origin story by depicting the initial alien invasion. It’s clear from this attempt that Krasinski is definitely a far superior thriller director. The way he captured the destruction and built suspense was so vivid that it was hard to forget. Sarnoski, while technically proficient, is unable to recreate that kind of power. “Day One” promises a broader look at apocalyptic chaos but fails to deliver it with any depth or consistency. The narration informs us in the opening moments that sound levels in New York are typically 90 decibels. But the sequences that follow fail to capture the contrast of a bustling, bustling city suddenly needing to remain silent.
However, human characters are governed by their behaviors. With more than a million and a half people living on the island of Manhattan, it’s hard to understand why Samira (Lupita Nyong’o), a stage 4 cancer patient, and Eric (Joseph Quinn), come for special treatment. . Neither of them has a survival instinct. Samira goes against the flow of people heading to the canals and Eric seems to be following her for no reason. Samira is an antisocial and abrasive person and finds it difficult to empathize with her situation, while Eric suffers her panic attacks by chance. While both Nyong’o and Quinn are fascinating in their emphasis and presence, there is little we learn about their characters throughout the film.
The aliens, appearing in the foreground or moving away from the camera, still appear frightening. The city appears as one of the main characters. The visual and soundscapes of the city are an affirmation of life, before the appearance of the aliens.
But there is nothing new here. The story does not focus as much on a specific family as the previous ones. There’s no backstory as such, just the bombastic arrival of the aliens and the havoc they wreak on New York City thereafter. There’s also no interesting story to latch on to. We don’t get to know why the aliens have broken into Earth and how everyone suddenly recognizes (even the cat) that remaining silent is the only way to remain hidden from their dull eyes and keen senses. Monsters are incredibly inconsistent in their reactions to sound. There are times when we see them attack instantly when the slightest screech is heard and then there are times when the main characters go about their business and yet no aliens directly attack them. Even the behavior of the cat (named Frodo) is not characteristic of a feline. After the initial meows we do not hear any sound from Frodo, and the cat continues to enter and leave the frame and manages to return each time to its owner despite the devastation in the city. To make matters worse, Samira has one last wish: to eat pizza, and the narrative makes that aspect her cherished ambition. It is a trivializing construction that considerably weakens the drama.
The sound design is clear, the cinematography is very atmospheric, and while some of the special effects are great, some parts aren’t. Overall, this is an implausible, if functional, thriller that shows off its tricks to captivating effect.
