It’s a life changing experience to travel abroad. Cuisine you’ve never tried, landmarks whose beauty seem indescribable, and people who have their own cultures and attitudes that could be enlightening. That’s the ideal vision, the dream trip. However, it’s also likely you can find things out there that you’d find anywhere else. Entitlement. Rage. Jealousy. Resentment. No region’s safe from the follies of the human condition. So, when Ben (Scoot McNairy) and Louise (Mackenzie Davis) embark on an extended holiday in Italy, they soon meet their polar opposites in Ciara and Paddy (Aisling Franciosi, James McAvoy). The former couple are American, reserved, a bit uptight, and certainly anxious about the emotional struggles plaguing their young daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler).
Paddy and Ciara are in a similar boat with their adolescent son, but approach life with a more laissez-faire attitude; in particular, the boy’s stunted emotional growth isn’t of much concern to the obnoxious Paddy. Paddy & Ciara are hypersexualized in a way that’s in your face, party animals with the sexual politics of 60s hippies. Despite these differences, Louise & Ben are bemused yet intrigued by their new British friends, a bond that grows closer once Paddy and Ciara invite the clan to the former’s isolated countryside residence. It’s a chance for all involved to make new friends and step out of their comfort zone.
Speak No Evil is the American remake of the hellacious Danish film of the same name. In the original, our would-be protagonists are Danish, not American, and brush up against a dramatic clash in cultural values with their Dutch hosts. Here, that dynamic has been replaced with the dichotomy of American and British values. Louise and Ben are depicted as liberal, or at least liberal-leaning, with Louise being announced early on as a vegetarian (a plot point carried over from the original). Paddy playfully pokes at this ideology, a situation that Louise tries her best to take in stride, but may be evidence of something more sinister under the surface.
Nonetheless, despite their aggressive attitudes, Paddy and Ciara seem to be deeply in love. Ben and Louise seem to… tolerate each other, a schism that has more backstory that the movie will reveal later. Yet, it’s the couples’ children where their differences will become most glaring. Ciara, in particular, displays a weird fascination with parenting Agnes, and it just doesn’t seem to add up why Ciara & Paddy’s son, Ant (Dan Hough), appears so quiet and timid.
The film is disarming and appropriately chilling, even if it clocks in as lesser than it’s Danish counterpart. The original was more unflinching and cutthroat in it’s depiction of human behavior, a standard that the remake can’t quite meet for reasons we’ll get to. But what the new film does well, it does it early and often, and that’s mostly spearheaded by some fantastic performances. In fact, I’d say that’s one of the things that is actually better than its predecessor – the acting is at an even higher level. Most of that credit will go to James McAvoy, who steals the movie with charm and unhinged rage. His verbal abuse is only aided by a hulking figure that makes for an intimidating screen presence. Davis is the next best performer here, having to vacillate between shades of pleasantries, sadness, and strong annoyance to great effect. It makes a good foil for McAvoy and Franciosi, who are loose canons that don’t consider the consequences of their actions.
However, where Speak No Evil really defines itself in how it diverges from the original, in ways that are quite predictable for an American version of this tale. In the original film, the morality play at hand is a juxtaposition between the kindness of the Danish mixing with the callousness of the Dutch. That kindness is betrayed and manipulated in ways that are at times frustrating, as the audience wishes the protagonists would show more of a spine. However, the tragedy of that is the point; it’s an exaggerated metaphor in a similar vein to The Banshees of Inisherin (2022). This isn’t to say that there isn’t criticisms you can level at this metaphor; including how it stereotypes Danish and Dutch folk, and certainly you shouldn’t assume the caricatures in the movie represent all of the character traits of an entire region. But as subtext and as a dark, haunting thriller, it is effective in this depiction of the chasm in decency.
2024’s Speak No Evil, however, is very much not that as the movie goes along. Instead, it morphs into what you’d initially suspect in this type of movie – a battle determined by strength and brutality. In a vacuum, it makes sense that the captives would want to fight back. But in practice, the movie ends up mirroring the 3rd act of any basic bitch Hollywood thriller you’d see from Blumhouse or New Line Cinema, taking away the unique qualities that made the predecessor such a disturbing yarn. In its wake, you’re also diluting the metaphor and the comparisons of ethics in cultures.
Exacerbating these issues is how the screenplay doesn’t show a lot of confidence in American audiences to understand this story, which is also pretty predictable. That’s why you get scenes of the characters explaining to each other in great detail what’s really going on and why. One character gets visual aids to help them along and somehow still doesn’t really piece it together until the last page of the scrap book. However, I don’t believe American audiences need their hand held to this degree. Our antagonists scream loudly about the themes of the movie, which were already apparent if you were paying attention, but someone is ready to exclaim “YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY I DON’T LIKE YOU! WELL, HERE’S MY MANIFESTO ON WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOUR CULTURE EVEN THOUGH THIS HAS ALREADY BEEN FIRMLY ESTABLISHED THROUGH ACTION!”
Which makes critiquing this movie an interesting dilemma. On the one hand, I don’t think we need shot-for-shot remakes, and I encourage remakes (if we’re going to have them) to take creative swings that can make its version of the story unique. But for the specific case of Speak No Evil, I must admit that the best scenes in the movie are the scenes that are cribbed from the original, as the movie is fairly faithful for the first 2/3rds. Including a tense moment involving what starts as a playful dance, that quickly turns into an awkward moment of expressed masculine rage. In fact, it’s probably even more effective and disturbing than its original counterpart.
This makes this remake a mixed bag of excellent production/editing, strong performances, yet questionable decisions in terms of writing and character arcs. It seems that trying to make the film more “fitting” and “topical” to American audiences also makes it feel like several other American thrillers you’ve already seen before – go figure. This extends to the character of Ciara, which the movie kind of hedges its bets on in terms of making this a despicable person. We understand why this is done – director James Watkins clearly wants to keep the focus on the damage done by patriarchal actions. But perhaps the movie is too kind to her, taking away some nuance in how and why some people are complicit in negative societal structures, even if those people aren’t the primary benefactor of those structures.
It all makes for interesting ideas and debates on how metaphors evolve between cultural translations. For its flaws, Speak No Evil still makes you think and keeps you (mostly) invested, even as the final act becomes increasingly violent and archetypal of the American remake. The theme will hit 20% less, but you’ll feel more like a badass watching it! I guess.
