It’s an old Buddhist mantra that we should, ‘See no evil, Hear no evil and Speak no evil’ which is far from easy to adhere when the BBC insists on transmitting a Mrs Browns Boys Christmas Special every year. But here, Speak No Evil is a remake of a Danish psychological thriller and director James Watkins co-writes with the original films screenwriters.
We first meet Ben (Scoot McNairy) and Louise (Mackenzie Davis) on holiday in Italy with their daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) and are doing their best to avoid getting cornered by a Danish father and family who bores them about cooking with mushrooms.
Their salvation comes in the form of Paddy ( James McAvoy) a gregarious father and his wife Clara and mute son Ant (Dan Hough) whose company they reluctantly accept but quickly enjoy when he amusingly heads off the Danish father and his family from joining them. Like so many holiday friendships that ‘we must stay in touch’ is paid the usual lip service but when they’re back in the UK Paddy does stay in touch insisting that they come over to stay for the weekend in his country farmhouse.
It’s clearly going to be a bad move especially as we’ve already seen that Louise and Ben’s relationship is fractured from some previous event and Paddy’s behaviour is borderline autistic perversely pulling the rug from under them on occasion as a ‘joke’. Something’s just not right about their stay and Ben does his best to excuse it away but Louise is far more aware and conscious that all might not be what it seems. Paddy seems to deliberately enjoy creating excrutiatingly awkward moments and soon minor quibbles become major issues. Paddy and Clara’s behaviour around them is often deliberately awkward (most obviously a deliciously embarrassing restaurant scene) and their mysteriously mute son knows far more than he is able to let on. That Ben and Louise’s new found friends place them in scenarios to leave their own daughter in a variety of predicaments suggest that Paddy and Clara’s last guests must have been the McCann’s.
Director James Watkins masterfully ratchets up the tension playing on that British characteristic of going along with anything to prevent any offence to their guests regardless of how obviously wrong they are to do so. As a director he has brilliant form for building up the moment as seen in his version of The Woman in Black and especially in his debut film ‘Eden Lake’ ( an under rated British gem and well worth searching out). Inevitably it all builds to the seemingly obligatory action packed third act finale which has nods to Straw Dogs. The entire cast are great but this is very much McAvoy’s films flipping between various characters flaws in similar fashion to his role in M Night Shyalaman’s, ‘Split’ and he is very good as this type of dual character. Mackenzie Davis too is an equally good counterpart to McAvoy’s often overbearingly persuasive bonhomie.
As layer upon layer is gradually revealed Speak No Evil draws you into an entertaining thriller that keeps you terrifyingly engaged right up to the end.
related feature : Pennywise at the IT Chapter 2 premiere / James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain & Bill Skarsgard / Secrets
related feature : Hugh Bonneville and Kelly MacDonald talk about their thriller, ‘I Came By’….
Here’s the Speak no Evil trailer…..
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