Movie Review – A Quiet Place: Day One
Principal Cast : Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, Djimon Hounsou, Elane Umuhire.
Synopsis: A young woman named Sam finds herself trapped in New York City during the early stages of an invasion by alien creatures with ultra-sensitive hearing.
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One of the breakout big-screen successes of recent years has been the John Krasinski-helmed sci-fi thriller franchise A Quiet Place, and its sequel, 2021’s A Quiet Place Part II; in keeping with Hollywood’s insatiable mantra to stripmine the ever-lovin’ shit out of a hit property, we return to the silent-but-deadly well with a prequel of sorts, simply entitled A Quiet Place: Day One. As its title suggests, the film showcases – albeit offscreen for a lot of the time – the initial impact of the alien invasion alluded to in the earlier films, well before Krasinksi and Emily Blunt ever appeared as Lee and Evelyn Abbott on their farm in rural upstate New York, and pitches us into the frenzied attack of creatures with exceptionally sensitive hearing infesting one of the loudest cities on the planet. Established in the previous films, silence is the order of the day with A Quiet Place: Day One, and a lot of fantastic work has gone into the film’s stunning sound design, although in keeping with the series’ predominantly character-driven set pieces and story arcs, incoming star Lupita Nyong’o is given a tremendous part to play as a terminally ill woman whose only desire is to eat a piece of pizza.
It’s a bright sunny day in New York City, and terminally ill cancer patient Sam (Nyong’o) is reluctantly taking part in a group outing from her hospice to a show in Midtown Manhattan. Not long after arriving, a mysterious bombardment drops into the hubbub, unleashing horrifying, violent alien creatures who appear to track their prey using only their hearing, forcing the surviving inhabitants of New York into virtual silence. As the dust settles, Sam decides that rather than attempt to be rescued, she will make her way uptown to Harlem for a piece of pizza at a little shop she remembers, and sets out with her cat, Frodo. Along the way, Sam encounters another survivor, Eric (Joseph Quinn), and the pair gradually make their way towards their destination, attempting to evade discovery as they do so.
Day One was originally intended as a directorial project from filmmaker Jeff Nichols (Midnight Special), who also wrote an unused screenplay, until he dropped out and was replaced by Pig helmer Michael Sarnoski, an undeniable talent but somebody I felt was a bizarre choice given this would only be his second feature, and the bar was set ridiculously high after the first two films. Fears assuaged, however: Day One is sublime, a remarkably tense apocalyptic thriller mixed with quietly drawn character work from both Nyong’o (12 Years A Slave) and co-star Joseph Quinn (Overlord), and a simply mesmerising accompaniment to the Krasinski-directed entries. Although perhaps less edge-of-your-seat for the entirety as we’ve had before, Day One builds up a tremendously tragic character in Nyong’o’s Sam, while Quinn is solid as something of a foil for a woman nearing the end of her life through disease.
It makes for an intriguing arc, this one, having somebody with terminal illness, not far from a natural death, suddenly having to fight through the end of the world for piece of pizza as a matter of principle, but the plot is merely a MacGuffin for Sarnoski and Nyong’o to showcase the actress’ stellar performance ability and her genuine inhabitation of every character she plays. While Nyong’o, Quinn, and other co-stars like Alex Wolff and a cameo from Djimon Hounsou (reprising his character from Part II) spend a lot of the film in near silence, whispering and gesturing to maximise their storylines against a backdrop of a rapidly quietening New York City, the tension elevates the further Sam and Eric venture uptown to Harlem and human activity subsides to almost zero. Again, a brilliantly evocative screenplay by Michael Sarnoski (with story credit to the director and John Krasinski) and terrific central performances, not to mention an enveloping production design of a ruined NYC and the alien creatures we’ve come to appreciate, and Day One hits all the right notes – quietly – for a perfect subgenre entry and one of the more enthralling films of the year.
Helping the tension rise is the inclusion of a sweet little cat, Frodo, played by real-life felines Nico and Schnitzel, with Sarnoski apparently eschewing the use of a digital animal reproduction in lieu of a living breathing animal that would act more naturally, even to the point that during some of the gripping, hear-your-heartbeat-through-your-chest sequences of peril I kept waiting for the cat to loudly meow or screech and find itself next week’s kitty-litter. Alack and alas, the dang cat survives. That fact might be considered a spoiler, but I know a few people who might watch this terrified the cat doesn’t make it, or refuse to watch it unless the cat makes it, so there you go: Frodo sees himself through to the end credits. I cannot reveal who else does, or doesn’t, however, because of the relatively small cast list and Day One is definitely a film you want to go into knowing as little as possible. This one isn’t about the destination, though, it’s about the journey, and what a thrilling, genuinely pulse-pounding voyage it is. Of course, we know what happens to humanity and civilisation in light of the alien attacks, and the previous films have obviously revealed various creature traits and weaknesses used to “defeat” them in some respects. But Day One’s chronological backpedalling ensures that while we know, the characters on-screen do not, and therein lies the inherent tragic irony. Indeed, Day One is one of the sadder entries into the series, given the sense of ruined innocence prevalent throughout the narrative; this sadness is only amplified by Lupita Nyong’o’s heart-wrenching, incredibly intense performance.
A Quiet Place: Day One is a terrific film, a showstopping dramatic tour de force for Lupita Nyong’o and a splendidly inventive and electrifying directorial sophomore effort from Michael Sarnoski. If you haven’t yet seen Pig, can I implore you to do so as soon as possible, if for nothing else than to show you how accomplished he is as a director in different genres of film – Day One is a far cry from the subtle, subdued Pig, and we’re all the more blessed for his skill behind the camera. So long as they can keep coming up with intriguing storylines to implant into the franchise’s premise, I’ll keep watching: and you should too, for Day One, and Nyong’o, are superb.
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