People are dangerous, but what does it have to do with aliens? The debut and so far the only full-length picture of Stephanie Joalland, which takes place in post-apocalyptic provincial England, focuses on a young brother and sister, in whose house is hiding either a friend or an enemy, and the criminals are even more “fun” than inside. Separate greetings to the one who invented the Russian synopsis for the film: it is not written so clumsy, probably, even in elementary school.
The first half of the session
After watching exactly half of Quiet Hour, I decided to take a breather to express my impressions. What can I say? Very impressive is the atmosphere of light anxiety and mystery, alienation in the struggle for survival. I like actors. But the script is kind of murky. The alien invasion is reminiscent of only shots of rocks or clouds hanging in the air (as a reference to James Cameron’s Avatar), whose purpose is incomprehensible from the word “at all”. Why the apocalypse happened, there is no answer. But there is a completely private situation: in the house of the main characters by chance was a person who does not cause trust. Soon, however, it turns out that there are people worse than him, and the guy may still be useful. But the attitude of his brother and sister after one unexpected incident changes too sharply, which slightly breaks the formed idea of the characters. In principle, it is possible to survive, but after half an hour to watch what is happening becomes less interesting and intriguing; smooth, measured course of the film, despite good camera work and acting, affects more sleepy than with an encouraging effect.
The second half of the session
A couple of dull scenes, a couple of “mixed” scenes (when the characters are not very smart, and you do not understand why you can not first think with your head), followed by the finale, finally confirming that we are in front of a very strange movie, or more precisely, a representative of a specific near-fantastic art house. The story from a holistic view looks like a sluggish pursuit of revenge in the scenery of a wild post-apocalypse with an admixture of a mysterious UFO, which here is generally from the side-pit. Melancholic despondency is combined with faint hints that “something worthy of attention is about to happen,” or “now we will be better explained how and why the family crime drama is woven into fiction,” but such stuffing is not justified. Aftertaste leaves much to be desired.
Result
There are movies that do not require any attention, even as sleeping pills, because they do not contain at least useful visual or emotional content. And there are lulling films that are pleasant to watch, and even waiting for something, but while you wait, you blow away along with the plot, stop sympathizing with the characters and inadvertently prefer your dream to other people's dreams.
Quiet Hour falls into the second category. Started for health, finished for rest.
4 out of 10