7/12/18. A teen angst movie about a deaf-mute girl who really isn't. People confide in her thinking that she won't tell anyone else, and then sometimes she intervenes. The incest theme can be a bit disturbing.

Camilla Belle (When A Stranger Calls) stars as a deaf, mute girl named Dot, who has lost her father, and is sent to live with her godparents. Their daughter is a knockout cheerleader, Nina (Elisha Cuthbert - The Girl Next Door), who seems like she has more than a few secrets and does have a heart - but hides it.Dot has no friends and sits alone, but seems to always watch what Nina and her friends are doing at lunch. When it comes to dinner, she eats quietly and then goes to bed. One night at the movie theater, Nina plugs her ears to simulate what Dot is going through.Dot is paired with Connor (Shawn Ashmore - X-Men) as a lab partner. Everyday after school, Connor notices Dot playing the piano. He seems to like her and she begins to show feelings for him, when she spends an evening with him by the school pool after his basketball game.When Dot learns a terrible secret from Nina, a friendship and more importantly a bond like sisters would have - forms between the two.I was really surprised with this movie. I saw Elisha Cuthbert as a credited star and thought, 'well better give this a look,' but believe it or not, Camilla stole the show. She was definitely the better looking of the two, and just amazing with her portrayal. Elisha's character was just as difficult to play.I was also amazed at the soundtrack/score. It was very well done, and I'm even more amazed at the fact that Camilla Bell performed all the piano works by her character. I thought the photography and darkness went with the theme and story really well. The cast was great and the story was very interesting. I wasn't on the edge of my seat, but I had a kean interest throughout.This movie is surely a new all-time favourite of mine. It's a great film and I saw no flaws. Anyone who has the chance to see this, don't miss out. Watch it.

Belle is nearly catatonic teen placed with highly dysfunctional family after the tragic death of her father. The fact that she doesn't communicate or react seems to encourage all those around her to let her in on their darkest secrets, and there's some pretty dark secrets with this crew. All of the supporting cast does well in their respective roles, beginning with the knockout Cuthbert and including Ashmore as the sex-obsessed friend and Mixon as the ditz. But the star is Belle, who makes this movie by drawing us into her unique character. This isn't supposed to be a comfortable movie and the way it plays out is rather difficult but appropriate given what's happened before. I would enjoy seeing it again.

Jamie Babbit's "The Quiet," dealing with the difficult subject of sexual abuse, is an ambitious film that shot for the stars and ended up tumbling down a cliff. The main downfall of this film is that the talents of the actors are not commensurate to the demands made upon them by their challenging roles. The character of the abused teenager Nina, for example, is certainly interesting, but Elisha Cuthbert cannot play this character effectively. Cuthbert had to portray a tortured soul struggling not to explode in a rage. But Cuthbert couldn't do it. She appears more like a sulking and obnoxious teenager experiencing puberty rather than a girl who is unusually troubled and depressed. And because we cannot imagine Cuthbert's Nina as troubled and depressed, it becomes more difficult to understand why she would explode in a rage. In addition to that dilemma, the angry scenes come across as something from a cheap theatre play with third-rate actors. Instead of convincing the audience that she was angry, sadistic, and potentially violent, Cuthbert came across as an actor playing a role. In other words, a film's success depends on its ability to deceive the audience into believing that the people on screen are real. But in "The Quiet," we were not seeing Nina, but rather Elisha Cuthbert pretending to be Nina -- and that's why this film does not work.But that was not the only problem with this film. The editing was poorly done. There are scenes in "The Quiet" that should not be there because they distract from the central premise (which is the story of the sexually abused Nina). I am referring to the sex scene involving Dot (Camilla Belle) and one of the boys in school and another scene where Dot and the same boy are at a cafeteria engaging in dumbed down conversation. Then there are the scenes with Camilla Belle playing the piano which seem to lack any purpose. I like classical music, but how does Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata relate in any way to the subject of this film. Perhaps Babbit felt that if the classically trained Camilla played Beethoven, then somehow that would save the film. She was wrong. Finally there are the boring scenes with Nina as the cheerleader on the basketball court or in a cinema looking back at Dot.Finally there is the problem of the script. Why for instance was it necessary for Elisha Cuthbert's Nina to dress in a sexy cheerleader's outfit in front of her sexually abusive father. For a film dealing with sexual abuse, scenes displaying Cuthbert's sex appeal come across as shamelessly exploitative and by implication even supportive of incest and sexual abuse (even if that was not the intention). The nude scenes with Eddie Falco, who plays Nina's mother (she did so much better in the Sopranos), are among the most uncomfortable that I have seen. Then there is Camilla Belle's performance as Dot, the supposedly deaf and dumb girl who moved into Nina's house. We know -- in fact we are told -- that we must to feel very sorry for Dot, because she lost her father in a car accident. But I did not buy into that sentimental nonsense, because the car accident and the disability are cheap ploys to generate sympathy for a character that does not move us in any way. Daniel Day Lewis' Christie Brown character in "My Left Foot" moved us because his feelings and frustrations seemed real. But Camilla Dot's Belle is dull, uninspired and depressing to watch. There is no reason to care about what she says as evidenced by the fact that her observations are forgettable. This too is a big problem for this film because Camilla Belle narrates for this entire movie. But she has nothing important or interesting say throughout; her performance is dreary and indifferent.The only thing I can credit this movie for is director Jamie Babbit had the guts to go all the way with this ambitious project when more frail souls (influenced largely by monetary concerns) would have given up or tried to find some way to cut their losses. "The Quiet" was Babbit's great gamble and it failed. Belle and Cuthbert were poorly chosen for their roles. The plot was flawed. The cinematography, gloomy. The music, all wrong. "The Quiet" is a failure, but it is also an ambitious failure because Babbit cared enough about this film to try as hard as she could to make it work even when it was clear that it could not work.