While watching “A Quiet Place: Day One,” I was fully engaged but, as soon as it was over, it all sort of vanished away from my mind. What an odd experience that something that was truly engrossing moments before almost immediately became ephemera when the credits hit. Writer/director Michael Sarnoski crafted a perfectly fine movie filled with appropriately interesting sequences high on tension and even imbued his (mostly silent) characters with lots of heart and pathos. The actors are all great in their roles and really show off their abilities to communicate so much emotion and inner life with very little dialogue. There’s even a delightful cat that constantly steals scenes with its adorable acting. And yet, all of it washed off me once I left the theater. “A Quiet Place: Day One” is a perfectly adequate sci-fi thriller that will certainly entertain in the moment but is unfortunately nothing memorable.
Terminally ill Samira (Lupita Nyong’o) travels to New York City with a group from her hospice center to take in a show. Soon after, the city is besieged by attacks from aliens that ruthlessly kill all in their path. It’s quickly discovered that the monsters operate on sound, and any noise will alert them to people’s presences and usually results in death. While everyone else is encouraged to leave the city via boat, Samira decides to head to Harlem. Along her journeys she connects with Eric (Joseph Quinn) and the two continue uptown while careful to evade notice by the horrible creatures.
There’s lots of good in “A Quiet Place: Day One,” even if it all feels impermanent. The cast is terrific, with Nyong’o and Quinn delivering fantastic turns as characters that feel like real people. These two have always shone in their previous work, so it’s no surprise, but it’s nice to see that Sarnoski (who made “Pig,” my top film of 2021) continues to be an excellent director for actors. The filmmaker truly has a gift for getting meaningful work from actors even in odd (or unrealistic) scenarios, and the combined talent delivers some moments of genuine heart. The duo has a great chemistry that naturally grows and deepens as they spend more time together, which is made all the more impressive by how much is done wordlessly.
Sarnoski also shows a gift for constructing taut scenes as the humans try to silently navigate around the aliens. (Did you know they were called “Death Angels”? Neither did I…and neither did Nyong’o) There are multiple sequences where Samira and Eric (and Samira’s cat, Frodo) are desperately trying to get past one of the monsters that feel fraught with danger as the audience doesn’t know how it will turn out for our leads. All the “Quiet Place” films have done this really well. It’s just that there haven’t been as memorable moments as the original entry, with its stepping on the nail scene (for example). The aliens are interesting villains (if a bit under-designed), and all the filmmakers have made their menace palpable, but for some reason, none of those close calls or scarier sequences in “Part II” or “Day One” remain in the mind like that first movie.
Maybe because it’s all variations on the same stuff we saw back in 2018? As “A Quiet Place: Day One” played out, I caught my breath as Samira and Eric held theirs in hopes that they would go undetected. I chuckled (or at least smiled wryly) at the efforts of humor that occasionally poked up. I was moved by Samira’s quest to go back to Harlem and her efforts to celebrate life amidst all the death. But then it ended, and I just thought “that was fine.” The film is never boring. It moves at a fast pace without sacrificing character development or thematic resonance. True, there are plenty of moments where the cat kind of undercuts the tone and just feels a bit silly — but that’s a very minor thing and actually adds to the charm of “Day One.” And yet, I left feeling like it was just okay. Maybe because the look of the film isn’t especially memorable? It’s never especially stylized in one way or another, and there isn’t a lot of memorable imagery or compositions I can point to. But there are plenty of bland looking movies that linger far longer in my mind than “Day One,” so I’m not sure that’s it, either.
Franchise filmmaking is rarely approached with this much sincerity. Sarnoski does an excellent job with the script and direction and is greatly aided by the fantastic actors. It’s a strong story with an interesting angle that finds more to explore in this world of “A Quiet Place.” For a prequel, it doesn’t do much to tie into the other entries (there is a bit that leads into “Part II” but, to be honest, I had forgotten about it until talking with others) but instead expands the universe in an unexpected and novel way. “And yet”…that’s the phrase I keep coming back to. And yet, despite all of this, it easily slips the mind once away from it. Perhaps because those tense sequences are just variations on scenes that have been done before. Perhaps because it doesn’t look especially impressive or stick out visually in any way (certainly not from the other two). For whatever reason, “A Quiet Place: Day One” is unfortunately a totally fine movie that doesn’t really leave much of a lasting impression.
3.5 / 5 Stars
Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, Djimon Hounsou
Director: Michael Sarnoski
