Speak No Evil (15) |Close-Up Film Review
Cast: James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi, Scoot McNairy
Review by Carol Allen
American husband and wife Ben (Scoot McNairy) and Louise (Mackenzie Davis) Dalton are on holiday in Tuscany, where they meet Paddy (James McAvoy) and his wife Ciara (Aisling Franciosi). While finding Paddy a bit bumptious at first, they are soon won over by his friendliness and amusing antics. The Daltons have recently relocated to London from America, which hasn’t really worked for them and their marriage is a somewhat sticky too, so when shortly after the holiday they receive an invitation from Paddy and Ciara to spend the weekend at their place in the idyllic British countryside (actually shot in Croatia), they accept.
Bad choice. Because Paddy, whom Ben sees as a role model of masculinity, which he would do well to emulate, is actually a very dangerous man. Just how dangerous though the film reveals slowly and disturbingly. Louise, who is a rather irritatingly uptight American wife, is uncomfortable from the start with what she sees as accommodation, which doesn’t meet her aspirational high standards, though their somewhat over anxious daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) hits it off with their hosts’ young son Ant (Dan Hough), who is mute, due, his parents say, to a birth defect.
The first real indication of trouble however is when the hosts take their guests to dinner at a remote restaurant where they are the only diners. In the course of the evening, Paddy hints at his unhappy and abused childhood, quoting poet Philip Larkin’s most famous line on the subject and then persuades his wife to perform a sexual act on him under cover of the dining table. The Americans are also uncomfortable with Paddy’s bullying of his son. The full horror of their situation though is revealed in a chilling scene, when Ant shows Agnes Paddy’s secret cellar room, revealing what happened to previous visitors to the farmhouse and the real reason why he is unable to speak.
And when the Americans realise they are trapped and escape is impossible, all hell breaks loose as the situation escalates into a perhaps over drawn out but powerful and terrifyingly engrossing climax, in which McAvoy channels his inner Jack Nicholson as in The Shining and the rather wet American wife finds her inner Boudica (aka Boudicea), as she fights to protect her child and her still rather wet husband.
The film’s interesting examination of toxic masculinity and its aspirational appeal to weak men like Ban gets a bit lost in the blood and flames of the climax but it still grips like a vice. Aisling Franciosi as Paddy’s wife has rather limited opportunities in his shadow, but Hough as Ant is excellent and McAvoy is powerful and totally terrifying.
