Availability: Showing widely in theaters; not streaming at this time. Expected to arrive on Paramount+ in August or September. See JustWatch here for future streaming availability.
Sentimental Journey
A man, a woman and a cat walk into a horror film. “A Quiet Place: Day One” isn’t quite that simple—indeed, the script toys with the existential—but the description is apt. The cast—the players one cares about through most of the film—is limited: Samira/Sam (a superb Lupita Nyong’o, winner of an Oscar for 2013’s “Twelve Years a Slave” and star of Jordan Peele’s 2019 “Us”) is a life-weary woman with terminal cancer who struggles to care about living and to love beyond her pet; Eric (Joseph Quinn) is a young Englishman studying law in New York City who struggles to care for someone besides himself, and for something besides staying alive. And there’s Frodo the cat (played by two cats), an independent but loyal feline—man’s best friend, conveniently without the barking.
Above, Eric (Joseph Quinn), Sam (Lupita Nyong'o) and Frodo (the cat)
attempt to escape the monsters by traversing many parts of New York City,
at one point in the abandoned subways.
In this “horror lite” production, the horror film is at best a 4th protagonist—not an enemy to be defeated, but a setting, an ongoing irritant, “out there” but, curiously, not central to the story. Although a prequel purporting to be “Day One” of the invasion of destructive, hungry, and carnivorous creatures, the film assumes that viewers, having seen one or both of the previous offerings in the series, will need no introduction to the invaders, who are, of course, blind, can’t smell, and can’t swim, but are able to locate their prey by homing in on the slightest sound. The actual gobbling up is not shown.
In this “horror lite” production, the actual gobbling up is not shown.
Given the widespread knowledge, both within the film and among viewers, of how the flying things find their prey, it’s incongruous that Eric and Sam run from them in a crouch, as if the creatures might see them, and odd, too, that people would not only travel in groups but would tolerate a noisy roller bag or a squeaky wheel on a wheelchair. To see Eric risking his life (and, indirectly, Sam’s) to save Frodo (who has demonstrated he doesn’t need saving) also makes no sense. It’s inconceivable, as well, that the pharmacy Eric finds would be fully stocked, neat and organized.
Sam (Nyong'o) looks into the sky
for monsters, while Frodo,
her cat, seems nonplussed.
A hardened Sam learns to be nice (beyond her cat) and to understand herself as other than a victim.
As nasty-looking and hungry-for-human-flesh as the creatures are, they’re mostly a backdrop to the sentimental drama that takes center stage. As one might (too readily) expect from a screenplay that leaves us with only two humans of any consequence, each of the protagonists is expected to learn from the other, to become a better person. Eric, though he declares himself “one of those people who wants to live,” learns that existing courageously and boldly in the present—going to Harlem with Sam to get a pizza at her favorite parlor while everyone else is fleeing in the opposite direction—is more important than adhering to a long-term goal (a law degree) that isn’t the right one. A hardened Sam learns to be nice and to understand herself as other than a victim, to once again find meaning as she helps others to survive. Seen against her transformation, the film’s last frame seems unnecessarily dark and conclusive.
Eric (Quinn) appears out of the water
as if coming up from
a full-immersion baptism.
Sam and Eric and Frodo are ordinary people and cat, not action heroes or superdog come to take on the monsters.
The story, written by director Michael Sarnoski (who knows his movie animals as director of “Pig,” 2021) with the original co-writer and director, John Krasinski, continues the limited dialogue that characterized the first two films of the franchise. Because the characters must remain mostly silent, we are shown their reality and their emotions more often than we are told them. Sam’s illness is not explained; a “Little Firs Hospice Center” bus is about all one needs to comprehend her situation. The plot uses no deux ex machina to save the day, though it is not without spiritual references, like Eric rising from the water as if he’s been baptized into a new life. In a throwback to the enthusiasm for “ordinary heroes” of decades past, Sam and Eric and Frodo are ordinary people and cat, not action heroes or superdog come to take on the monsters. Sarnoski demonstrates admirable restraint in limiting the destruction of iconic New York City structures to just one—the Brooklyn Bridge.
Wearing Sam's father's yellow sweater, Eric finds the courage to lead the three of them (including Frodo) away from the monsters.
Not all is restraint. The over-exposed pizza trope culminates at Loetta’s jazz club—now empty and abandoned—where our trio experiences one of several long moments of calm, and Frodo grabs a piece of the pie. There, Eric celebrates his growing bond with Sam by (inexplicably) doing a pick-a-card-any-card magic trick, while Sam responds by giving him the yellow sweater she wears, the sweater that once belonged to her jazz-piano-playing father. A passing of the life-force torch, yes, but a trifle cloying. One is tempted to imagine a crashing thunderstorm, covering up the sounds of the club’s piano, as Sam, channeling her musical dad, offers Eric a rendition of “Sentimental Journey,” Doris Day’s 1945 hit—quietly, of course. Nothing would better summarize “A Quiet Place: Day One.” Senti-horror. Watch for the next installment.
Date: 2024
Director: Michael Sarnoski
Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Schnitzel and Nico (as Frodo, the cat)
Runtime: 99 minutes
Country: United States (filmed mostly in London)
Language: English
Other Awards: one win and one other nomination to date
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