Speak No Evil (2024) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  James Watkins

Starring:  James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi, Scoot McNairy, Dan Hough, Alix West Lefler

Speak No Evil remains grounded and suspenseful when a lesser film would go off the rails.  The villains aren't invincible demons who rise time and again from certain death to keep coming after the heroes.  We know that something is definitely up with Patrick (McAvoy), who claims to be a retired doctor, and his family, which includes a son who was born with a tongue too small and thus cannot speak.  This will all be revealed to be bull, but Speak No Evil operates at its best in the buildup, where Patrick and his wife Ciara (Franciosi) take full advantage of their newfound friends' desire to be polite even in the face of unacceptable behavior.

Patrick and Ciara (along with son Ant (Hough)) meet the Daltons during a vacation in Italy.  Ben (McNairy) and Louise (Davis) are struggling in their marriage because of Louise's emotional infidelity with another man.  They live in London, mostly following a recent movie trend of Americans living abroad because the countries in which they're being filmed give tax breaks.   Patrick sends an invitation to the Daltons, who have a teenage daughter named Agnes (Lefler), to spend a weekend at their rustic country home.  The house is underwhelming and dirty, complete with stained bed linens.  As the weekend goes on, Patrick and Ciara participate in increasingly bizarre behavior which unnerves the Daltons, but they timidly keep their mouths shut.  

Patrick is an uber-masculine guy who engages in the sort of activities one would expect from him.  He hunts, he fishes, he smacks Ant around when he is unable to keep rhythm while dancing, and does scream therapy.  The McAvoy performance is the key to the movie.  If he is anything less than convincingly despicable, then Speak No Evil will fail.  McAvoy clearly relishes his villainhood, and we then root for him to be crushed when the time comes.  The arc of Speak No Evil is predictable, but that's why we went to see it.  We know what we'll get.  McNairy and Davis provide the opposite characterizations of nice people who stay polite to avoid confrontation, which is what Patrick is counting on to allow his scheme to work.  Ant's story plays a huge part in unveiling Patrick's real self in a creative and eerie way. 

I think of Neighbors (1981), John Belushi's final theatrical film in which he plays a polite stick in the mud who barely finds the strength to protest the behavior of his obnoxious new neighbors.  That was a comedy.  Speak No Evil is the dramatic side of that coin, and covers many of the same dark areas while keeping it thrilling for the audience.