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If you’re looking for a decent home invasion movie, The Silent Hour might be what you’re looking for.
The Silent Hour is a 100-minute action thriller starring Joel Kinnaman (For All Mankind, The Killing), Mark Strong (Dune: Prophecy, 1917) and Sandra Mae Frank (New Amsterdam, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist), directed by Brad Anderson (Beirut, The Machinist) and written by Dan Hall.
Boston Police Detectives Frank Shaw (Joel Kinnaman) and Doug Slater (Mark Strong) investigate the harbor, and Frank loses most of his hearing in the process. Six months later, he returns to the police force and, together with his ex-partner, is supposed to question the deaf witness Ava Lopez (Sandra Mae Frank) as a sign language interpreter regarding a murder case in a run-down soon-to-be evicted apartment complex. After he forgets his cell phone and is therefore returns to Ava, a siege ensues in the style of Assault on Precinct 13 or even Die Hard, as it is presumptuously stated on the back cover of the home cinema version. The group led by Mason Lynch (Mekhi Phifer) – some would say a lynch mob – which kills a man on Ava’s cell phone video, tries to destroy all evidence and eliminate the witness.
While the attackers try to exploit their superiority in numbers, Frank and Ava have to defend themselves with every means imaginable, using every escape route, creating diversionary maneuvers and using all kinds of objects as weapons. While they barricade themselves in the apartment complex, the two grow closer. Dramatic firefights with lots of shaky cam (thanks, Jason Bourne) alternate with quieter sequences in which we learn more about Ava and Frank. The limitations of Frank’s hearing lead to all kinds of interesting scenes, for example when classic action scenes have a muffled sound or none at all. In many scenes, however, this leads to the film losing momentum and repeatedly being almost paused artificially. This is not necessarily due to the great acting performances of Joel Kinnaman, but much more a problem of the script, which seems stretched thin. The hearing impairments of the protagonists seem more like a means to an end, to give the action thriller a special touch without getting too caught up in a realistic portrayal.
The film also provides counter-evidence of how that can be done a bit better, after all, the complexity of Ava Lopez’s character extends far beyond her deafness. The dynamic between Kinnaman and Frank makes the film grow beyond an average action film. Strong’s talent, on the other hand, is hardly used, he is only granted a few scenes in The Silent Hour and the main antagonist Mason Lynch remains relatively faceless apart from a short scene in which he reveals his motivation. The same applies for the other gangsters. Despite all this, the film manages to find a relatively conciliatory ending.
The German Blu-ray Disc release contains English and German DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio tracks and German subtitles for the hearing impaired. The German dubbing is alright, some voices fit the characters well, others, like Frank Shaw’s of all people, seem quite out of place. The only extras available are the German trailer, which already reveals a large part of the plot, along with a handful of film recommendations in the form of trailers. There is a reversible cover without the large FSK 16 age rating logo.
Final thoughts
The Silent Hour is an action thriller without much depth, with a top cast, decent stunts and a fantastic duo of protagonists, who engage you just enough that you want to continue watching. The action sequences are interesting to watch as first-person perspectives and tracking shots are used and the protagonists make us root for them, but The Silent Hour never reaches the quality of other home invasion films. Genre fans can go for it, but everyone else could watch the show The Killing instead, in which Kinnaman demonstrates his acting skills as a police officer.
The distributor SquareOne Entertainment provided us with The Silent Hour on Blu-ray Disc and the photos.