The Silent Hour

In Boston, homicide detective Frank Shaw (Joel Kinnaman) is chasing a criminal when he is hit by a car. He has a sensible hearing loss and eleven months later, his doctor tells him that he will become deaf in a few months. While the devastated Frank is drinking in a bar, his former partner and now narcotics detective Doug Slater (Mark Strong) asks Frank to help him in an investigation. He needs to interview Ava Fremont (Sandra Mae Frank), a deaf witness to the murder of a drug dealer, but the ASL translator is on vacation and not available for one month. Frank goes with Doug to Ava's apartment in an almost empty residence building and they learn that the residents have been evicted since the owner wants to renovate the building to rent the apartments for a higher class. Frank learns that Ava is a former drug addicted and finds Narcan in her bathroom cabinet. Ava delivers her cellphone to Doug with the footage of the murder, and they leave her place. While driving back home, Frank notes that he has forgotten his cellphone at Ava's apartment. He returns to her home and finds that a group of men led by the black Lynch (Mekhi Phifer) is hunting her down. Soon he learns that Lynch and the other men are corrupt cops that want to simulate an overdose in Ava to kill her. Further, Ava is not drug addicted and used drugs only when her grandmother died, and she was depressed. Now their only hope is to find a telephone and contact Doug Slater to save them.

"The Silent Hour" (2024) is an engaging and claustrophobic thriller with a cat and mouse game story. Joel Kinnaman performs the role of an honest police detective that is involved in the attempt to murder a witness by dirty cops. Sandra Mae Frank is deaf in real life and is comfortable in the role of the smart deaf witness that is saved by Frank Shaw. The plot is predictable and flaws when Ava discharges the pistol retrieved by Frank on the window, leaving them without a weapon again. Despite the flaws, this film is highly entertaining. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Not Available"

Yes, okay, you aren't getting anything original, but The Silent Hour is a well made, taut, action Thriller and thoroughly engaged me from start to finish. Good performances from the cast, especially the two leads.

Yes, okay, you aren't getting anything original, but The Silent Hour is a well made, taut, action Thriller and thoroughly engaged me from start to finish. Good performances from the cast, especially the two leads.

Yes, okay, you aren't getting anything original, but The Silent Hour is a well made, taut, action Thriller and thoroughly engaged me from start to finish. Good performances from the cast, especially the two leads.

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))

Seeing Kinnaman among the cast was enough to make the decision to watch this movie. He did not disappoint, brought his A game, as usual, and did a more than decent job with the character and script he was given.

All in all this was not the movie of the century, as a matter of fact it would be hard to call it even the movie of the year. But quite honestly, looking at the poster and reading the film's summary, I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting here, and the movie delivered exactly that. It was a story built on a well known, well used and overused formula, with a little twist (the good guys having hearing issues), and that's about it. I did not expect it to be incredibly original, and it wasn't. I expected it to have a few memorable moments, and it did have a few (the protagonist "acquiring" his hearing problem for one). I expected to see a few tired cliches, and they sure were right were you'd think they'd be. And in general, I expected to be entertained for a bit, and I was. The story had a good pace, the runtime was filled with actual action, not pointless fillers. No forced romantic plot lines/sex scenes, no overlong buildup of the starting situation, no monologues and cheesy emotions etc. Just a coherent story that held my interest and kept me engaged.

I wouldn't think that I would feel like re watching it anytime soon, or put it on my all-time-favourites list, but it filled an evening just fine. And with today's abundance of absolutely awful movies, that was just enough.

"The Silent Hour" is a thrilling auditory adventure that plunges us into a world of silence and suspense. Joel Kinnaman's portrayal of a deaf detective, forced to rely on his instincts and a deaf witness, is a masterclass in understated intensity. The film's sound design is a character in itself, creating a palpable sense of isolation and tension. While the plot may be predictable at times, the film's unique premise and strong performances elevate it above the ordinary. "The Silent Hour" is a must-watch for fans of suspenseful thrillers and a testament to the power of storytelling without words.