Plot
13-year-old Sinikka vanishes on a hot summer night. Her bicycle is found in the exact place where a girl was killed 23 years ago. The dramatic present forces those involved in the original case to face their past.
Release Year: 2010
Rating: 6.7/10 (853 voted)
Director:Baran bo Odar
Storyline
13-year-old Sinikka vanishes on a hot summer night. Her bicycle is found in the exact place where a girl was killed 23 years ago. The dramatic present forces those involved in the original case to face their past.
Trivia:
Director Baran bo Odar, along with the films cinematographer, watched several westerns before shooting this picture. This was to give the movie more of a western style to it instead of being just another thriller. See more »
User Review
Where past sins always come back to haunt.
Rating:
Most murders are committed by people who know their victim, a fact that
is standard fare in most whodunits. Rarely are murders committed at
random, although the recent horrific thriller Funny Games (1997, remade
2007) presents the worst possible scenario.
But random murders do occur in real life: all over the world, people
disappear and forever remain 'dead' with family and friends who are
forever in limbo, unable to achieve closure. Only sometimes are the
perpetrators caught.
With that thematic background, The Silence presents just that scenario
with the rape and murder of a young female teen that remains on the
books of the local police for 23 years – until it happens again to
another teen, on the same day of the year, at the same place, and with
the same modus operandi.
Unlike other serial killer movies – for example, The Silence of the
Lambs (1991) – we know the identity of the killer from the get-go.
Moreover, we also immediately know there are two perpetrators, although
one of them is obviously reluctant to participate, even passively as he
watches. As the two criminals, Ulrich Thomsen (as Peer Sommer) and
Woltan Mohring (as Timo Friedrich) give strong and believable
performances that center upon their individual but similar proclivities
for depravity: brave actors both to take on such abhorrent roles.
But why a gap of 23 years? Well, that's where the story really starts,
after we see the first murder in the first five minutes. And when the
second murder occurs, so also occurs the retirement party for the local
police detective (Krischan Mittich played by Burghart Klaussner) who
failed to solve the first; so also the return to duty of an eccentric,
grieving, widowed officer (David Jahn played by Sebastian Blomberg) who
is obviously still distraught by the loss of his wife (to cancer) and
who engages in bizarre activity; and so also the emotional awakening of
the mother of the first murdered teen (Elena Lange played by Katrin
Sass), who has been locked in unrelenting grief for over twenty years.
And in that mix there is repressed and introverted Timo – now a
successful architect, beautiful home, lovely wife, two munchkins, the
works – who, when he reads about the second murder, knows immediately
who it is and decides something must be done… But, what?
As the police investigate, and as the clues are revealed, the net – so
to speak – tightens without the two miscreants knowing. But, as
viewers, we know it all, and gradually we move to the edge of our seat
as we see how the wrong decisions are made, how the wrong inferences
are drawn, how actions by one can be misconstrued by another all too
easily, and ultimately how facts can be ignored or discarded for
political expediency or professional jealousy and for the need to close
a case, once and for all.
Arguably, suspenseful story doesn't get much better than this; although
some viewers might argue about narrative holes and coincidence.
However, because it's so believable it's so much better, especially the
ending which I'm sure many – maybe most – viewers will not see coming,
including me. Only in the last thirty seconds, perhaps… when the full
irony hits you between the eyes.
The setting is semi-rural, ordinary and faultless; the production is
well paced, even at two hours; the dramatic acting – there is
absolutely no comic relief – is flawless; and the direction is so good,
well, a glance or look truly is more effective than a thousand words.
The background music is appropriate but, at times, borders on clichéd,
I think. However, this is a movie I'll watch again – not only for the
story but also for the narrative structure that combines so many
different threads of lives shattered by indifference, inaction,
inadequacy or inconsolable sadness.
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