Trapped in Silence

Kiefer Sutherland's talent is incredible. I have always been a huge fan, but recently I came across this old made for tv movie and was absolutely blown away by his performance here. Kiefer is an institutionalized teenager who has exiled himself into a silent, crazy world due to years of excessive abuse as a child that culminated in a horrific traumatizing event. Marsha Mason is the psychologist who tries to discover what happened to him.

I don't mean to go on and on about Kiefer's role here, but I can't help it. I was so moved by his performance. I felt myself drawn into the movie and wanted to know just as much as Mason's character what had happened to him.

I don't know how easy it is to find this movie in your local video shop, I ended up buying it online, but it was totally worth the money, in my opinion. One of Kiefer Sutherland's finest performances (and there have been plenty!) and I highly recommend hunting for this one.

I originally saw this film on television a long time ago. It was filmed primarily at the Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center in Wingdale NY, a facility that is now closed. The opening scene when Marsha Mason is walking down some stairs in front of a large window is in the Administration Building. The kids playing soccer a few scenes later in the background were workers children. The rest of the film was filmed locally in Poughkeepsie (i'm not sure where) with one scene being at the Hudson River Psychiatric Center.

As a later Kiefer Sutherland fan I was quite disappointed to learn he had been near my hometown filming a movie.

Overall I thought it was a wonderful movie with good performances by all.

I love this movie and would recommend this movie. Everytime I see it I cry. It will touch your heart. Keifer Sutherland did a great acting job. I would love to see him in more of these kinds of films.

I recently won this film at an eBay auction, and I finally got it in the mail this past Tuesday. I watched it last night, and oh my God, Kiefer was nothing short of amazing in this film. As someone else on a message board for Kiefer so eloquently put it: "The earliest example of a Kiefer performance transcending its vehicle." Everyone else seemed as though they were just reading, as though they'd just memorized their lines without giving them much thought. But not Kiefer. You can just tell that he put so much thought into the delivery of every word, every sentence, every flinch of his body. All of it blends together so seamlessly and creates this character that Kiefer completely disappears behind (just like he did with Roy in Behind the Red Door). You watch this movie and you don't see Kiefer. You see Kevin. And you know he made an impression on the people around him, because when Kevin finally opens up and tells Jenny what happened to his sister, Marsha Mason is really crying (as was I) and her performance gets better because of him. What boggles the mind most (well, mine anyway) is that he was SO young when he made this movie. He was 20, right? As Melia said "So young and so talented". I think that if I ever went into acting, and I had the honor of working with him (because that's exactly what it would be: an honor), I'd want to ask him what it is he does that enables him to disappear into roles like that (but knowing me, I wouldn't, 'cause I'd either be too klunked out or too chicken! LOL!). In any event, this movie has quickly become one of my favorite Kiefer films, and for his performance alone, it was well worth the price I paid.

Never before have I seen a film so resolutely pessimistic and relentlessly optimistic. That is not a strength. The story suggests darkness, coldness, pain. This is appropriate. The director and composer, however, insist on interjecting lightness at possibly the least believable intersections. It's not that Michael Tuchner's direction is necessarily bad - he allows Kiefer Sutherland to give one of the best performances of his career - but he can't or won't decide which kind of film he wants to make.

Sutherland is what makes this work. Sure, Ron Silver is good, Marsha Mason, too. But these are expected performances, by-the-book characterizations. Kiefer Sutherland is the only reason you'd really want to see this. The scenes that are completely given over to him, his illness, the inner workings of his mind - these are the moments when "Trapped in Silence" takes you in on a deeper level.

In the end, you can feel the limitations of the format. The TV movie feel gets tiresome once you realize it prevents a certain level of ferocity that might otherwise be present. Still, it's a good story, and it feels real enough. Definitely worth it for early Sutherland.