Silence Becomes You (2005)
Directed by Stephanie Sinclaire
First off, let me spare you from the agony that is this film. This one isn't worth your time. It's not like a bad b-movie that you watch for laughs. It's just a bad movie.
Bad pacing, bad writing, confusing confusing confusing story.
Image from http://movie.sanook.com/story_picture/picture/movie/12328/2-9/3
So this is my interpretation of the story.
The film opens with a shot looking down at a girl in a pool getting sprayed with water that's glistening like crystals in the light. Very pretty. But pretty much unrelated to anything.
In a bar a woman is trying to pick up an attractive young man Luke (Joe Anderson). However another woman is eying Luke from another table and Luke chooses the second girl. The new couple leaves the bar together and ends up back at the girl, Violet's ( Alicia Silverstone) huge house.
Luke, drunk, passes out on a bed and Violet and her sister Grace (Sienna Guillory) take off his pants. Let him think he got lucky, I guess.
In the morning the girls tell him that he can stay a few days since Luke is a vagabond. He takes them up on it and grows closer to Violet. In turn this makes Grace jealous, like to the point where she pulls a knife on the poor guy.
Some amount of time passes (it's pretty unclear how much time since the movie has little sense of time), and the trio have pretty much stayed in this house the whole time. Luke's going stir crazy, and eventually Luke and Violet have sex. Luke is falling for her and wants her to leave with him. Grace tries to convince Violet that there's nothing good beyond these walls, including Luke. One day while Violet goes to the market, Grace seduces Luke (though he did protest her advances several times, so good effort Luke!). Violet finds out and runs off into the woods around her mansion in tears. Luke chases after her, telling her something that convinces her they should drive off together. Things seem like they're going to go well for Luke and Violet, but crazy Grace wants her sister back. The girls have some sort of twin stigmata going on, as well as, for lack of a better explanation, voodoo on each other. Grace begins to burn a photo of Violet, and Violet starts getting feverish in the car. Eventually Grace puts out the little fire not wanting to kill her sister. This is apparently enough to draw her back. While Luke sleeps in the passenger seat Violet drives all the way back to her house. Luke awakens furious and gives her an ultimatum--leave now with him or it's over. The sisters convince him to stay just one more night before leaving because Violet has recently announced their pregnancy. Luke agrees. One more night. That's it.
Wanting to 'celebrate' Violet heads to the market to buy food for a feast in her car that Grace has sabotaged. Luke is instructed to stay at the house with Grace and pose for a painting of him. She ends up losing it though and pulls a bow and arrow on Luke.
Violet's car breaks down and she senses something's wrong enough to hurry back to the house after a quick temporary repair. She peers through a window in a door to see her sister's arrow aimed at her lover. A buzzed Luke is more angry than afraid and starts setting the room on fire with a bottle of alcohol. The arrow strikes him dead. Violet has some sort of early miscarriage. Grace is pregnant. And the sisters part ways.
There's lots of other random unhelpful stuff sprinkled here and there in the film too, like implications of child abuse. It's also said that the girls never went to public school, so their sheltered lives explain why they dress so funny. They basically dress how a little girl would dress, except they're grown woman. So they have lots of sequins and ugly tights and just stupid outfits that would only look cute on a 7 year old girl.
There's also a line spoken by the girls' dead father repeated over and over. Something about writing your story in blood so your lead bones will turn into gold. It's just a bunch of poop!
Here, look at a picture of Joe Anderson to help sooth the anguish this movie creates. Image from http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/joe-anderson/images/1873375/title/joe-anderson-photo
Opens like an art film. I found myself thinking "Cremaster Cycle...?" But that thought alone is an insult to Matthew Barney, because Silence Becomes You is a weird mess that doesn't leave you in awe. As one of the thread titles on IMDB puts it, this film was "Undeserving of a theatrical release".
Then after the bar scene the set looks a lot like the outside of the house in The Others with Nichole Kidman.
This movie doesn't successfully convey the passage of time well. It's kinda just a big CF.
And perhaps I'm just too sensative to this, but the audio was killing me. There didn't seem to be any de-essing in the dialogue's audio so my ears, ahh, they hurt :, (
I'd like to also point out that this film was directed, written, and produced by the same person. This feels worthy of pointing out because if you're doing half the roles of making a movie then you run risks of failing because you don't have people with emphasis in one area or another to make better judgement calls than you'd be able to. Nothing Sinclaire has produced has amazing reviews. It's also noteworthy to mention Sinclaire has more of a background in theatre, not film. Not everyone can successfully walk back and forth between cinema and theatre. One of the things that struck me in Silence was some of the comically exaggerated motions, and I thought "What is this? Theatre?" Only after the film ended and I researched the director did I see why I felt that way.
I watched this movie because I really enjoy Joe Anderson's work in The River so I thought I'd give Silence a try. I wouldn't say the actors did a bad job. I blame an undeveloped storyline that has it's characters acting beyond believability. This makes the audience have no empathy for the characters at all!
Nothing was developed! We basically just see Violet and Luke make out and have sex, and we never see any other component of their relationship. Like why are you two in love? Then again, maybe it is just the sex.
Gosh, I just can't get over how underdeveloped the film is. There's like a million little components that could've been fleshed out to better convey what the hell was going on, but every component was just sort of only half done!
If you want to watch something good, go watch The River. Don't watch this.
Directed by Stephanie Sinclaire
First off, let me spare you from the agony that is this film. This one isn't worth your time. It's not like a bad b-movie that you watch for laughs. It's just a bad movie.
Bad pacing, bad writing, confusing confusing confusing story.
So this is my interpretation of the story.
The film opens with a shot looking down at a girl in a pool getting sprayed with water that's glistening like crystals in the light. Very pretty. But pretty much unrelated to anything.
In a bar a woman is trying to pick up an attractive young man Luke (Joe Anderson). However another woman is eying Luke from another table and Luke chooses the second girl. The new couple leaves the bar together and ends up back at the girl, Violet's ( Alicia Silverstone) huge house.
Luke, drunk, passes out on a bed and Violet and her sister Grace (Sienna Guillory) take off his pants. Let him think he got lucky, I guess.
In the morning the girls tell him that he can stay a few days since Luke is a vagabond. He takes them up on it and grows closer to Violet. In turn this makes Grace jealous, like to the point where she pulls a knife on the poor guy.
Some amount of time passes (it's pretty unclear how much time since the movie has little sense of time), and the trio have pretty much stayed in this house the whole time. Luke's going stir crazy, and eventually Luke and Violet have sex. Luke is falling for her and wants her to leave with him. Grace tries to convince Violet that there's nothing good beyond these walls, including Luke. One day while Violet goes to the market, Grace seduces Luke (though he did protest her advances several times, so good effort Luke!). Violet finds out and runs off into the woods around her mansion in tears. Luke chases after her, telling her something that convinces her they should drive off together. Things seem like they're going to go well for Luke and Violet, but crazy Grace wants her sister back. The girls have some sort of twin stigmata going on, as well as, for lack of a better explanation, voodoo on each other. Grace begins to burn a photo of Violet, and Violet starts getting feverish in the car. Eventually Grace puts out the little fire not wanting to kill her sister. This is apparently enough to draw her back. While Luke sleeps in the passenger seat Violet drives all the way back to her house. Luke awakens furious and gives her an ultimatum--leave now with him or it's over. The sisters convince him to stay just one more night before leaving because Violet has recently announced their pregnancy. Luke agrees. One more night. That's it.
Wanting to 'celebrate' Violet heads to the market to buy food for a feast in her car that Grace has sabotaged. Luke is instructed to stay at the house with Grace and pose for a painting of him. She ends up losing it though and pulls a bow and arrow on Luke.
Violet's car breaks down and she senses something's wrong enough to hurry back to the house after a quick temporary repair. She peers through a window in a door to see her sister's arrow aimed at her lover. A buzzed Luke is more angry than afraid and starts setting the room on fire with a bottle of alcohol. The arrow strikes him dead. Violet has some sort of early miscarriage. Grace is pregnant. And the sisters part ways.
There's lots of other random unhelpful stuff sprinkled here and there in the film too, like implications of child abuse. It's also said that the girls never went to public school, so their sheltered lives explain why they dress so funny. They basically dress how a little girl would dress, except they're grown woman. So they have lots of sequins and ugly tights and just stupid outfits that would only look cute on a 7 year old girl.
There's also a line spoken by the girls' dead father repeated over and over. Something about writing your story in blood so your lead bones will turn into gold. It's just a bunch of poop!
Opens like an art film. I found myself thinking "Cremaster Cycle...?" But that thought alone is an insult to Matthew Barney, because Silence Becomes You is a weird mess that doesn't leave you in awe. As one of the thread titles on IMDB puts it, this film was "Undeserving of a theatrical release".
Then after the bar scene the set looks a lot like the outside of the house in The Others with Nichole Kidman.
This movie doesn't successfully convey the passage of time well. It's kinda just a big CF.
And perhaps I'm just too sensative to this, but the audio was killing me. There didn't seem to be any de-essing in the dialogue's audio so my ears, ahh, they hurt :, (
I'd like to also point out that this film was directed, written, and produced by the same person. This feels worthy of pointing out because if you're doing half the roles of making a movie then you run risks of failing because you don't have people with emphasis in one area or another to make better judgement calls than you'd be able to. Nothing Sinclaire has produced has amazing reviews. It's also noteworthy to mention Sinclaire has more of a background in theatre, not film. Not everyone can successfully walk back and forth between cinema and theatre. One of the things that struck me in Silence was some of the comically exaggerated motions, and I thought "What is this? Theatre?" Only after the film ended and I researched the director did I see why I felt that way.
I watched this movie because I really enjoy Joe Anderson's work in The River so I thought I'd give Silence a try. I wouldn't say the actors did a bad job. I blame an undeveloped storyline that has it's characters acting beyond believability. This makes the audience have no empathy for the characters at all!
Nothing was developed! We basically just see Violet and Luke make out and have sex, and we never see any other component of their relationship. Like why are you two in love? Then again, maybe it is just the sex.
Gosh, I just can't get over how underdeveloped the film is. There's like a million little components that could've been fleshed out to better convey what the hell was going on, but every component was just sort of only half done!
If you want to watch something good, go watch The River. Don't watch this.
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