Silence Becomes You

I caught the last 30 minutes of "Silence Becomes You" on cable and was intrigued enough to order the DVD. The DVD would have benefited from a director's commentary as the film is annoyingly vague at times (even to me) and I imagine that most viewers would welcome some clarification.

My favorable first impression was probably a combination of the great production design, the excellent acting for the camera direction, and the understated yet inventive editing. It was filmed in Lithuania in HD video (said to be the first feature film with 100% digital cinematography), a technique that allowed the production staff to see each days rushes immediately so they could make timely rewrite and re-shoot decisions.

"Silence Becomes You" was written and directed by Stephanie Sinclaire, the Associate Artistic Director of the internationally known Kings Head Theatre in London. Her stage background shines through the production as all three of her main characters are given a nice multi-dimensionality. They are all flawed yet to varying degrees sympathetic.

Take the assorted plot summaries and comments about this film with a certain grain of salt. It is about two 20-something half-sisters (if you credit certain statements and make an inference) who are still living together in the estate where they grew up. Alicia Silverstone plays Violet and Sienna Guillory plays Grace.

They have decided that Violet should have a baby and lure a roguish drifter named Luke (Joe Anderson) to the estate for the purpose of getting her pregnant. There is a fourth character, the house, which exercises a considerable hold and influence over the two women. This relationship is represented by frequent memory flashbacks to their father and their childhood. The two young actresses who play them as little girls (most likely chosen for their physical similarity to Silverstone and Guillory) are convincingly directed by Sinclaire and their frequent appearances give the film a lyrical quality.

As in Terrance Mallick's "Days of Heaven" (1978), the four principal characters represent the four elements; earth (the house), water (Violet), fire (Grace), and wind (Luke). The principal dynamic being how the least transitory element holds the three elusive elements in place. Most of the complaints about the film seem to center on Sinclaire's frequent misdirection, the viewer only knows what she wants you to know and when she wants you to know it. There does seem to be vagueness for the sake of vagueness, or at least in the service of introducing complexity to a relatively simple story. The girls have a degree of paranormal skills and there is a strong mental connection between them; qualities that their alchemist father (lead into gold is his metaphor for reproduction) went to great trouble to develop. Sinclaire violates the language of film with this and with her inconsistent flashback techniques; confusing the viewer about what is real, what is mystical, what is a dream, and what is simply a memory. So the film is unable to decide between being a ghost story or a psychological melodrama. Yet in the end all this stuff fits into the final explanation so as long as you get it there is little cause for complaint.

This is a must see for Silverstone fans, by far the best thing she has ever done. Helped by an excellent acting for the camera director and an quality ensemble she is quite impressive. To me her face has always seemed slightly off-balance, making her an excellent fit playing a character that is somewhat off-kilter.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child. Comment Comment | Permalink

If you do not want to be the maddest person in the universe today, I beg of you..DO NOT watch this pathetic movie, seriously!! The director & the producer needs to be shot for this one! I had to literally come here & hope to God someone explained what was it I just watched! And I fought to keep one eye open so I didn't fall asleep on it. My dream probably would have been better! Then when I found out what the movie was about I realized I was better off not knowing! I can't believe someone even put this out on DVD much less a known actress was in it. I guess it's like my neighbor said, Silverstone hadn't made a movie in so long that she must have picked something with lines a 6th grader could memorize so she could pay her water bill. Let me tell all of you just how flimsy & pathetic this movie is, it makes that corny Honeymooners & Cat Woman look GOOD! I usually write the names of the new movies down then come here & read everyone's opinions before renting it. It NEVER fails, when I don't do that I get a piece of cr-p! I want my money back, whaaa sniff-sniff!!!!

It was an interesting premise for a movie, however, it had the tendency to lose it's impetus by attempting to be too art house. It captured the interest by keeping the watcher intent on working out exactly who was trying to achieve what and with whom but, more importantly why? It made for a kind of Charmed meets tortured soul effect, not, it has to be said a great combination for a movie. The dynamic of the sisters with their warped control freak father was nicely worked, leaving the watcher to draw their own conclusions about exactly what he got up to when mom wasn't looking.

Interesting boho kitsch costume for the girls and a nice stud muffin too!

I discovered great images in this movie - they show a stunning set and production design with tons of details, the colors are awesome and you can really experience the new technique of shooting digitally uncompressed in these aspects. The three actors are doing a good job and the story has some interesting complex layers to discover. The role of Alicia Silverstone might not be the one that some people expect here, but she offers a new side with a totally new look and far away from all that we're used to. The two sisters seem to live in a kind of a fairy-tale-world and this draws the attention of the viewer through the whole movie. If you like the impression of great pictures in a movie, then watch this one!

Silence Becomes You (2005)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Psychological thriller has Violet (Alicia Silverstone) luring a drifter (Joe Anderson) back to her house where she and her sister Grace (Siena Guillory) have some wicked plans. The two sisters appear to be trapped in the house by their child spirits and the drifter might have walked into a deadly game. The main reason for me recording this film was to see what Silverstone had been doing recently but unless you're a fan of hers then there's no real reason to watch this movie. I kept watching and watching hoping for something to make sense but it never did and the movie just kept getting more confusing as it went along. Even at the end of the flick I tried to make sense of what I had just watched and I still couldn't make head or tails out of it. I could pick this thing to death with various logical issues like how the two sisters aren't working and yet have everything they do but that would be pointless because there's one goof after another. The basic story of why the girl's need this drifter never makes any sense as it appears a big portion of the film was cut out leaving us with a big mess. The three actors turn in decent, if not good, performances but I'm not sure you can blame them too much since the screenplay offers very little. The thriller aspect of the film is never thriller and the erotic moments aren't any better. As Silverstone is still sticking by her "no nudity" clause, her sex scenes border on PG-rated as she always has her clothes on, which pretty much kills anything erotic. The complete film is a major mess from the start so it's best to stay clear or at least keep your fast-forward button near by.