Director Michael Sarnoski takes the reigns on A Quiet Place Day One after making waves in Hollywood with his 2021 indie drama, Pig. That film saw critical praise for lead actor Nicholas Cage, playing a once renowned chef now living as a hermit off the grid where he collects truffles with his trusty truffle pig.
A slow-burn meditation on grief as Cage comes to terms with the loss of his truffle pig, which triggers an exploration of his unresolved grief from the death of his wife years earlier. While a critical success on a micro budget, nothing about this film suggested Sarnoski was the obvious choice to take the reigns of the hit A Quiet Place franchise from writer, director, producer, and actor John Krasinski.
Going from a roughly two million dollar budget to managing a 70 million dollar production is no easy feat, and to say nothing of the genre requirements to deliver action on a massive scale in addition to suspense and a more mainstream pacing.
Ultimately, Sarnoski lacked the experience to deliver action at this scale, especially at the level established by Krasinski as an essential element of the franchise which was credited with single-handedly bringing back the theatrical business during the pandemic.
After two incredibly enthralling entries in a franchise that was launched by an original screenplay from outside the studio system, this third film lacks the fingerprint of Krasinski
Still, what could have been a cash grab clearly has loftier aspirations, resulting in a film that’s never boring and just provocative enough to spark big questions about what truly matters in this world when it’s falling apart.
The screenplay’s set pieces lack the tension carefully brewed under Krasinski’s
Lupita Nyong’o plays Sam, a hospice stage cancer patient who takes a fateful trip to Manhattan with her support group. Pig-alumni Alex Wolff is the group leader and is more enjoyable here than his flat portrayal of Nicholas Cage’s truffle buyer.
After attending a puppet show, which seems like an odd script choice pre-alien invasion, Sam hunts for some classic pizza as a bucket list choice. It seems counter-intuitive to have a person already dying to be our protagonist in an apocalypse style event. When the world shuts down, her medical supplies will be impossible to get, particularly any pain meds to treat the end stage cancer.
A mother taking her child on a support group trip for end stage cancer would be an entirely different story. Perhaps the narrative of the widowed mother played by Emily Blunt made the writers want to avoid that narrative choice once again.
Why fight to live when you’re already dying is continually in the audience’s mind? It’s never explored to its full extend once the film devolves into a bare bones survival thriller.
The interesting idea to explore is how quickly do folks discover that these alien invaders hunt by sound? Especially in a town that’s always loud and one that “never sleeps.” The film states that the noise in Manhattan is roughly 90 decibels, yet this Manhattan feels inherently false and with minimal research you’ll find that it was shot on sound stages in London versus on location.
A panicked young law student, Eric (Joseph Quinn), joins Sam with Frodo the cat following him. They form a small band and do their best to sneak through Manhattan. The city is now closed off from the rest of the city, leaving no chance of help anytime soon.
The group seeks sanctuary in church to allow Sam to rest. Eric ventures on his own in search of pain medication from a non-raided pharmacy. There’s another beat in the story for Frodo the cat to find danger and then be rescued by Eric.
Once reunited, Sam’s mind drifts to the Harlem Jazz club where her late father played. She references the pizza they’d have afterwards, and it’s clear this is Sam’s current focus with the dire circumstances surrounding the world. Eric feels motivated to fulfill his new friend’s wish, so he gets her to the club and searches for pizza. Luckily, Eric is able to locate collecting pizza from another store, and charms the audience – and Sam – by showcasing a hidden talent for doing card tricks.
When we arrive at the climax, we’ve already lost significant steam following the blues club and it’s hard to rebuild any of the intensity seen when the sound-hunting aliens first arrive. Our protagonists see boats in the river as some survivors are able to escape Manhattan. If the attempted swim to the boats wasn’t daunting enough, the sound-hunting aliens fill the shoreline and block their ability to even have a chance at swimming.
In a valiant move, Sam gives Eric her jacket and Frodo as a sort of passing of the torch. Sam rallies her strength and starts smashing car windows to trigger the car alarms and draw the creatures away from the coastline. Eric and Frodo leap into the water, not missing their chance thanks to their friend’s sacrifice. They are pulled up into the boat by Henri, a welcome callback from “A Quiet Place Part Two” played by Djimon Hounsou.
Eric then finds a note from Sam in the jacket which thanks him for his kindness and for being cat daddy to Frodo. We see Sam walking the streets of Manhattan as she listens to Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good,” going out on her own terms.
It doesn’t feel like the proper cinematic ending, or that any of the time-killing, underwhelming set pieces were needed to get to this moment. Frankly, Djimon Hounsou’s Henri character makes much more sense as the lead. The most interesting scene comes from Henri and his son, as they are put in proximity with a man who has a very loud panic attack with his breathing.
This stranger likely has loved ones that care for him, but his actions are threatening Henri and his son and he’s unwittingly painting a bullseye on them. It makes you wonder how far Henri will go to ensure the survival of his family. These moral dilemmas with actual suspense are far better than the designed set pieces which feel like first draft ideas.
At just under one hundred minutes, it feels like a lot was done is post to try to trim an unfavorable finished product from a second-time feature director adjusting to the requirements of the genre and mainstream pacing. A serviceable film with strong actors doing their best, there’s far too little character development, emotional investment, and action set pieces with legitimate tension to stand shoulder to shoulder with the prior entires.
Letter Grade: C