by Robert Bouffard, Editor
Hollywood remakes of non-English language movies is a precarious task. For every The Departed, there are multiple Downhills. There’s often not a good reason for the remake beyond appeasing those who don’t want to read subtitles. So that’s the baggage 2024’s Speak No Evil brings. The Danish film it remakes came out just two years ago, so it’s warranted to wonder why there’s a remake so soon, but Speak No Evil does enough to set itself apart from its recent predecessor, both thematically and narratively.
This new version begins as the original does: While on vacation, an American couple who now live in London, Ben and Louise (Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis), meet a British couple, Paddy and Ciara (James McAvoy and Aisling Franciosi), and they become vacation friends. Paddy is the sort of overbearing yet somehow magnetic man that the insecure kind like Ben simultaneously looks up to and despises. Ben wants to be Paddy, but he also wants to avoid him at all costs.
That magnetism wins over at the beginning, probably due to sheer lack of exposure, and the two couples kindle a little vacation friendship, one buttressed by their desire for their kids — Ben and Louise’s Agnes (Alix West Lefler) and Paddy and Ciara’s Ant (Dan Hough) — to have someone to play with. That’s all fine and good out in Italy, as Paddy takes Agnes on Vespa ride and the adults poke fun at some other vacationing couples, but things become more rickety once the two families meet for a long weekend at Paddy and Ciara’s remote English country home, and it becomes clear pretty quickly that something isn’t right.
Louise reluctantly agrees to the trip, while Ben thinks it will be good for Agnes — at almost 12 years old, she’s not maturing at the rate he thinks she should be. And thus we enter into a situation where Ben and Louise have to repeatedly push the limits of their comfort. Paddy offers Louise, a staunch, longtime vegetarian, the first piece of his specially cooked goose, which she takes it in her mouth, yet spits out the first chance she gets; Agnes’ sleeping arrangement is a blanket on the floor of Ant’s bedroom; Paddy and Ciara mime oral sex while out to dinner, during which they’ve left the kids home with a sketchy-looking sitter. The discomfort gradually swells, and every time the Americans sheepishly raise concerns, they’re effectively gaslit into thinking things aren’t as bad as they seem.
In a rare turn, like the 2022 version, asking why the characters in a horror/thriller do what they’re doing is actually the point. The original tests the limits of a couple’s politeness, while the remake comments on social anxieties having to do with parenthood, marriage, and masculinity. Because for all of the little moments that perhaps test the limits of what an American is okay with as opposed to a Brit, Paddy is too rough with Ant, yanking him out of the way while Agnes wants to use the swing, throwing him into the water while everyone is cliff jumping, and yelling and getting much too physical while forcing him to dance. All things that transcend cultural and parental differences, and cross the line no matter who you are. Finding out which moment is the one to finally break Ben and Louise’s timidity is where half the suspense comes from.
The other half comes from McAvoy’s performance. After spending years yearning in Narnia and Atonement, and then almost a decade as Charles Xavier, the revelation that he can do intense horror in Split seems to have opened the door for a performance like this one. He’s every bit as charismatic as he was in X-Men: First Class while every bit as terrifying as he was in Split. His broad, muscular figure definitely adds to his already intimidating demeanor, yet the boyish face that steals our hearts in Starter for 10 is still there beneath the beard and the brawn. In fact, it’s what attracts the more lanky, diffident Ben to Paddy. Here’s a self-sufficient man’s man who is opening his home; it’s hard not to be won over by that. A particularly funny moment shows the two men go out to an open field to scream out all their frustrations, only to cut to an extreme wide shot showing a stone tower to their right, the directly phallic shape revealing what keeps Ben from leaving, despite seemingly unending reasons why he should.
All these slight differences from the original film are enough on their own to make a remake feel surprisingly warranted. Writer/director James Watkins doesn’t just recreate what came before, scene-for-scene; instead, it he has a different take on the same setup, one which necessitates an entirely different third act. Watkins doesn’t leave us with nearly the bleak ending that Christian Tafdrup did in 2022, and that decision has its positives and negatives. On the positive side, Watkins’ version of the story is taken to its logical conclusion, but in doing so, the negative is that villain motivations are overexplained and tension — or at least the kind present in the first two acts — is lost.
It’s a bit frustrating that it goes the route that a lot of mainstream Hollywood horror goes these days, in that it becomes an R-rated Home Alone, because the strength of the movie up to that point is the character dynamics. The Home Alone-ing isn’t poorly done — it’s actually quite well done and exciting in its own way — it’s just discordant with the rest of the film up to that point.
But even a disappointing third act turn can’t keep 2024’s Speak No Evil from being a good time. The cast is aces and the ideas are there. It’s nice to get a thoughtful remake.
Rating: Liked It
Speak No Evil is currently playing in theaters
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