Search - Silence Becomes You on DVD

Beautifully shot film is a boring dud

Thomas M. Sipos | Santa Monica, CA | 02/23/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I wanted to like this film. I was rooting for it. I love artsy sepia-toned horror films like LOST SOULS and THE RING and GOTHIKA -- but SILENCE BECOMES YOU is none of that.



It's not a horror film. It's hard to say what it is. I kept waiting for something to gel; a story, a theme, a point ... something! But NOTHING!



The events (it's hard to call this a story) concern two young women living alone in a mansion. Their father was an alchemist. They allude to a "plan," which seems to involve finding a young man to mate with so they can have a baby.



Well, one of the sisters picks up a drifter in a bar and takes him home. Then ... nothing much. Lots of talk and flashbacks and superimposed images. I mean LOTS of superimposed images, all throughout the film, but to no clear purpose.



We see images of the young women as children, superimposed all over the place. At one point, the man is asleep, then he's woken by one of the women as a child. But it means nothing. Is it a dream? A flashback? An imagining? Alchemical magic? Does it occur in the future? The past? Another dimension?



"Who is beside you?" the man asks without moving his lips.



"No one is beside me," the child answers.



"You're just a child," the man says.



"I am eternally a child," the child replies.



Uhm, okay.



These images (of the women, their parents, the young man) are constantly superimposed, with sounds too. LOTS of magical-poetic gibberish, with no clear rhyme or reason.



The film seems to borrow a bit from D.H. Lawrence's THE FOX in that these two women become jealous over the man.



All in all, a confusing mish-mash. Beautiful sets, photography, sepia colors, but so BORING as it's all for naught. Just gibberish, and superimposed images, and wandering in the snow, and just sheer nothing.



Yes, there's an ending. Or rather, the film ends. Don't ask me to explain it. There's a fire. Or was there? It seemed a big fire, but then the house seems unaffected. The man seems to have died, but later we see him superimposed beside one of the women. One seems to have lost her baby in childbirth (or did she?) while the other woman is pregnant. Was it all a dream? A magical alter-reality? Who knows!



I'm sure some people will be bowled over with stupefied admiration, but I like a story to go with all that pretty photography.



An artsy-fartsy, none-horror, sorta Jane Austin type Gothic suspense thriller (the women watch an Austin movie on TV), but really, WHAT IS IT?"

Ohmigod!

J. Bandemer | Janesville, Wisconsin United States | 01/15/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"My wife and I rented this movie, expecting to see a quirky thriller...well, quirky we got. Thrills we didn't. This was a pointless film, unless you like movies without a point--in that case, "art film" might describe it. It's something that Roger Ebert might have given a "thumbs-up" to, but that usually means that it's dull, depressing, and/or Oscar worthy. This film might fit the first two, but it's about as Oscar worthy as "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes." When it hits the $5.00 bin at Wal-Mart, offer them a dollar for it--and keep the receipt!"

Clueless!!

badge | FL USA | 12/18/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This movie will leave you staring dumbfounded at your screen in disbelief - that you actually sat through 88 minutes of this appalling excuse for entertainment. The characters were as superficial as the plot was non-existent. A couple of cuss words and Sienna Guillory's breasts were thrown in to give it an R rating but truthfully the DVD box should have carried a government health warning. Whatever you do DO NOT buy this movie. Don't even waste the time or money renting it. Alicia Silverstone and Joe Anderson fail to explore their relationship in any dimension whatsoever, and resort to repeated meant-to-be passionate clinches because they literally have nothing to say to each other. And that's it!"

What was so confusing about this?

Gabriell Maldonado | gabbie | 09/21/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I don't understand why everyone was so confused by this film. I watched it beginning to end and was definately not staring at the screen dumbfounded. If you watched it and you got up a couple times to go to the bathroom or get something to eat and didn't pause it, then yeah, i can see where you might have missed a point somewhere. If you watched it all beginning to end and you didn't get it....you're not very bright. Now don't get me wrong. The movie definately has some aspects i didn't necessarily enjoy. Alicia Silverstone's character aggravates the crap out of me. If you havn't seen it yet and want to be surprised then don't read this because i'm about to ruin everything for you. Basically its 2 reclusive sisters living in a mansion alone. They had a strange upbringing by a crazy alchemist father. Assuming their parent's are dead, they've been left alone and have never really been apart of the real world so they have both remained incredibly childlike, often flashing back to themselves as children. They were taught about telepathy and mind powers from a young age by their father and seem to be able to communicate with each other that way. As adults they come up with a plan to find a man to impregnate one of them. they find Luke(joe anderson) in a bar and bring him home but the plan starts to backfire when Violet(silverstone)falls for him. Her sister, Grace, becomes jealous, feeling like Luke is stealing Violet from her so she seduces Luke to prove he's not that great. Anyway, at some point toward the end Luke starts to fight with Grace while Violet is away and he knocks over a candle into a bunch of oil paints causing a fire. Something explodes and flames engulf Luke, killing him. Earlier in the movie Violet finds she is pregnant but after Luke dies she has a miscarriage in the bath. but then you see a pregnant belly on Grace at the end as a result of her seduction. So at the end, Grace ended up getting the baby instead of Violet and it looks like Violet finally decides to leave home. Luke appears briefly in the passenger seat next to her, i think to show that having met him and with him in her thoughts she now has the courage to leave home and be apart of the world which is what he'd been begging her to do. But her character bothers me because she is the more childish of the 2. Grace is smarter and a bit more selfish and conniving. She is crazy and haunted by their father. Violet is a ditzy and naive in a way that I'm guessing is supposed to be charming but instead is just irritating. She too is haunted by their father but isn't crazy. So there you have it. I rather liked the movie, but I can see where others might not have. The movie is mostly just artsy I think."