Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Michael Sarnoski
Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, Djimon Hounsou
For the third instalment of his hit si-fi franchise,
A Quiet Place: Day One, John Krasinski hands the reins to fellow Polish-American filmmaker
Michael Sarnoski. If you've seen Sarnoski's impressive debut, the
Nicolas Cage vehicle
Pig, you'll note similar elements here. As with Pig, Day One features a protagonist who has retreated into their
shell, whose one friend is an animal, and who embarks on a quest in a major
American city. Both movies trumpet the pleasure of simple food in key
scenes. Sarnoski manages to weave his own interests into Krasinski's series
in surprisingly smooth fashion, suggesting that the world of
A Quiet Place can accommodate a variety of stories and
perspectives.
As the title suggests, Sarnoski's prequel takes us back to the day the
aliens landed. We saw this in the prologue of
A Quiet Place Part II
as a small town was overrun by the invaders. This time we get to see New
York City attacked by the creatures. As some opening text explains, the city
is one of the noisiest places on Earth, so it's fitting that it would be
targeted by a species that hunts by sound.
If you're expecting large scale destruction of The Big Apple ala
Independence Day, you may feel a little cheated. Such a thing could probably be achieved
through CG, but this series has always been more interested in intimate
human struggles than in exploding skyscrapers. For Sam (Lupita Nyong'o), the struggle has begun long before the aliens arrive. We find her in an
end of life hospice, where she's waiting out her final days before she
succumbs to terminal cancer. A friendly nurse, Reuben (Alex Wolff),
does his best to raise her spirits, but she prefers to be alone with her cat
Frodo. Using the lure of pizza, Reuben convinces Sam to join a trip to
Manhattan for a puppet show. Once in the city, Sam finds herself at ground
zero for the alien invasion, but with nothing to lose, she decides she's
going to get that pizza and begins the hazardous journey to her favourite
pizzeria in Harlem.
A protagonist who is set to die regardless might lower the stakes somewhat
so the film gives Sam a companion in the form of Eric (Joseph Quinn),
a young Englishman studying in the city. Refreshingly, Eric is absolutely
terrified, dealing with the situation in a relatable fashion. Sam and Eric
aren't the "strong" and "brave" types that usually lead sci-fi movies, but
they form a symbiotic relationship that sees them rely on one another. Sam
knows her way around the city in a way Eric doesn't. Eric helps secure Sam's
meds from the rubble of a drugstore when she hits a low point. A dynamic
forms that's practically identical to the 2021 sci-fi drama
Finch, in which a dying Tom Hanks builds a robot to look after his dog when he
passes. Sam sees Eric as someone she can entrust with the care of Frodo. In
their bonding, Sam and Eric find strength, but only one can ultimately carry
on.
A Quiet Place: Day One benefits greatly from a pair of
interesting and relatable protagonists, played engagingly by two fine
actors, but it's let down by its lacklustre set-pieces. Sarnoski never mines
suspense or tension from the premise as successfully as Krasinski, and the
setting of New York is squandered. We get the usual 9/11 imagery of crowds
fleeing from plumes of smoke, but the city is curiously empty; for a
metropolis of eight million residents, there's a suspicious lack of corpses.
Along with 9/11, the Paris Bataclan attack is evoked in a sequence that sees
frightened theatregoers playing dead as aliens move through the aisles, but
it's never as tense as the scenario might suggest. Given this movie is set
in the opening hours of the invasion, it's hard to swallow how quickly
everyone figures out that the aliens can only find them through sound. While
we initially worry about Frodo, the cat is too often used for cheap
manipulation. The first movie might have killed off a toddler in its
opening, but no viewer will be naive enough to believe this furball won't
make it through.
