Speak No Evil, 2022.
Directed by Christian Tafdrup.
Starring Morten Burian, Sidsel Siem Koch, Fedja van Huêt, Karina Smulders, Liva Forsberg, Marius Damslev, Hichem Yacoubi, Lea Baastrup Rønne, and Jesper Dupont.
SYNOPSIS:
A Danish family visits a Dutch family they met on a holiday. What was supposed to be an idyllic weekend slowly starts unraveling as the Danes try to stay polite in the face of unpleasantness.
Patience wears thin watching the invited Danish guests of a Dutch countryside family either not follow through with smart decisions or continue to make poor ones. Of course, terrible decision-making is a staple of the horror genre, but director Christian Tafdrup (co-writing alongside Mads Tafdrup) is not only aware of this with Speak No Evil, but he also weaves it into the storytelling’s fabric.
Several contrived elements still work against the overall narrative, but none detract from Speak No Evil‘s vague, ice-cold core, which concludes with a harrowing series of shocking events that rock the soul. When the ending credits started, my first thought was, “thank God these are just fictional characters”; it was the only way to calm my nerves and compose my thoughts. So many movies wish they could make viewers care about characters the way Speak No Evil does, which practically had me begging inside that it would sell out and go for a happy ending (something I rarely want). That’s how unapologetically, mercilessly, and thrillingly fucked up things get.
Admittedly, it’s difficult to explain in a spoiler-free review why the narrative works, as so much of the final 15 minutes re-contextualizes what we think about these characters and what the movie could be saying (the motivations behind certain despicable acts are somewhere between straightforward and horrifyingly, inexplicably evil). But it can be said that the general exploration of similarities between Danish and Dutch people, alongside how different these particular families seem, is not a juxtaposed dynamic without its universal traits. Speak No Evil is a playfully demented title (and there are moments of twisted humor here), considering it is a story about the voiceless and voices and how the latter need to use them rather than reverting to politeness even though many things are clearly off regarding the situation they are in.
Danish couple Bjørn and Louise (played by Morten Burian and Sidsel Siem Koch, respectively) with their young daughter Agnes (Liva Forsberg) are vacationing in Tuscany when they cross paths with Dutch couple Patrick and Karin (Fedja van Huêt and Karina Smulders) and their young son Abel (Marius Damslev). They engage in casual conversation and have dinner together, briefly introducing who they are. Key details include Louise’s vegetarian preference, Bjørn’s scrawny appearance and shakiness when confronting situations that don’t feel right, Patrick’s medical experience, and Abel’s disability from being born without a tongue (or one much smaller than the standard human).
Sometime after that vacation, Patrick and Karin invite Bjørn and Louise up to their remote woodland home for some bonding and relaxation. Hesitant since Bjørn and Louise still don’t necessarily know Patrick and Karin on solid terms, they oblige anyway, assuming that the getaway will do some good (while also noting that Agnes will have someone to play with). From there, the families utilize polar opposite parenting methods, and that’s all one should know going into Speak No Evil.
The performances are emotive and sometimes terrifying, there is a palpable dread from the second the families begin finding themselves at odds with one another (a feeling that troubles once one character does something incredibly creepy), and the finale is revoltingly tense, accentuated by a powerful score from Sune Kølster.
Speak No Evil is a difficult movie to shake, with a four-word sentence during the climax that will rattle around in the mind for a long time.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
