The Silent Hour

An entertaining thriller just do just that -- entertain. It should not present a paradox to the viewer, or do anything which makes it harder for the viewer to identify with the main character. Yet this film actually goes out of its way to do just that. On paper, all the boxes are checked. Brad Anderson is both prolific and successful at his craft. Kinnaman is one of those actors who is easy to relate to, and never gives a bad performance or disapponts. The story is obviously a riff on the Die Hard formula, and pretty hard to mess up as long as you remember to "set up" the action scenes in advance. Even with the checked boxes, the result is a letdown. Giving Kinnaman's character a literal handicap -- even to the point of having him repeatedly fiddle with his hearing aid -- makes it harder to relate to the main character. The Die Hard arc is not well developed, and the action scenes do not deliver on the "killbox" promise that the audience expects. Instead of leaving feeling entertained, one leaves with the feeling that this could have been better done. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))