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*If you still haven’t seen A Quiet Place, you should probably stop here!*
Spoilers below!!!
The father didn’t have to die. Let’s just get that out of the way. He. Did Not. Have. To Die. We knew how to protect him. We knew what she needed to do, and she failed us, well him. But, mostly us.
Now that you know my stance on the ending, let’s go back to the beginning. I attend movie pre-screenings quite often because I love movies and my boyfriend is a movie freak, so it’s something we can bond over. Plus, free is free and nothing beats free. Nothing.
My intrigue with A Quiet Place started on Facebook. I ran across the trailer, gasped, sent it to my boyfriend, gasped again, and told him we had to see it. Then, months later, I’m still gasping when the trailer finds its way inside my home and I even chatted about how the storyline has already drawn me in with a fellow blogger on Twitter. Two days later, we had tickets. It was clearly fate.
Okay, so, ready for my review? Let’s get into it. Here’s my breakdown of the amazing, the annoying, and the downright hilariousness that was my experience in a theatre full of Black people in the middle of Atlanta. (The order has nothing to do with it.)
A Quiet Place
The Audience: You Love to Hate Them
Why are Black people so damn LOUD? You’d think that at some point in our lives we’d learn to shut the hell up, but that just wouldn’t be us. Movies wouldn’t be the same without wanting to dump your entire bucket of popcorn over someone’s head or feeling the need to rip out someone’s vocal cords. My people definitely came through on the free entertainment. And, I thank you.
The Father: The Best Character
The love this man held in his body for every member of his family was always worn across his face and structured into his bones. His daughter wasn’t able to see that his love was keeping him locked away from her out of fear of losing her. But, his love was evident, nonetheless. The intricate workings of their home after the time of the invasion was his heart extending outward and it was beautiful to watch it light up. When you finally realize that he never actually wanted his daughter to hear, he wanted THEM to hear, you will want to cry. You also might want the daughter to have died instead because she’s a little ungrateful brat filled with regret for getting her 4-year-old brother killed.
The Monster: What Is That Thing?
This Alien-Predator-grasshopper-dolphin thing was wicked. It was ugly-as-hell, bigger than I expected and nothing like I thought it would be. I appreciate that. I wouldn’t say it was super fast, but with legs like that, you’d never beat it in a race. The baby never stood a chance. He also had a not-smart older sister who thought she knew better than their parents and ultimately caused his death. Do you see a pattern, yet? I loathe her.
The Realization: The Coolest Sh*t Ever
The first moment we realized her father wasn’t making her a standard hearing aid, I almost grabbed her through the damn screen. For the rest of the movie, I had to pretend like I was an extra because I had all these words to say but the theatre was no place for my joy-rage.
When the frequency waves went off again, I just knew she was going to figure it out. But, alas, she let me down. (Again, pattern.) The daughter was literally just all disappointment. One of the only things she did right protected her eldest little brother from imminent death. But, that could not redeem her.
The Ending: The Father’s Death
I’m back full-circle because I just needed to make this clear: He did not have to die. The parent’s talked a time or two about how smart she was and how she’ll make it through this and she’ll find a place to hide and she knows what to do….BLAH BLAH BLAH. She couldn’t even figure out what the hell was going on when she needed to save the one person that’d been holding her down even when she made the gravest mistake of her short existence. He didn’t have to die and I just can’t say that enough.
The Ending x2: The Pure Girl Power
EVERY WOMAN NEEDS TO SEE THIS ENDING. Like, what?! WHAT?! Totally unexpected yet might be some of the best I’ve ever seen. Mama gave birth, silently in a bathtub, alone with a monster feet away. The daughter finally realized that her father was a damn genius of a man and lit those monsters’ echolocation-type ears on fire. AND THEN. ANNNND THEN. Mama shot that b*tch in the face. The looks on their faces when they realized they had just dived headfirst into a fight they knew they could win was everything the little girl inside of me needed to see. The loud smack of applause in the audience after that final cock (of the gun) and nod (between mother and daughter) was worth wishing the daughter had been the child who died in the first 20 minutes.
Now, hopefully, you saw the movie before you read this, but, just in case you need to see it again, here’s Fandango.
A Quiet Place has made my top movies list. I’m going to go decompress, now.
