Review of He Was a Quiet Man (2007) by Michael A — 14 Feb 2010

He Was A Quiet Man reminded me a lot of The Girl Next Door. Now they're two completely different films, but here we have Elisha Cuthberts character bringing out the character of Christian Slater showing him to live life and not stay in his hole of self-doubt that he's been living in all these years. Even though she was paralyzed from the neck down, it was her captivating smile that made him look at days with an eager feeling. In The Girl Next Door Emilie Hersch's character was shown the same thing by this one remarkable woman in Elisha Cuthbert. That was what I meant about it reminding me about it.

Now the story here is completely different and we find Bob (Christian Slater) on the brink of going insane and killing off his fellow employees. Just when he was about to do so, another employee does the job for him and in the process shoots Vanessa (Elisha Cuthbert) in the back, in a case of mistaken identity, paralyzing her. Having seen that, the killer decides to put her out of her misery, but Bob shoots him in return. In so doing, he turns into a hero and is given a new lease on life, financially, by being promoted as second-hand man to the president of his company played by William H.Macy. Over the course of time, he develops a romantic relationship with Vanessa and takes care of her needs because of her condition. Everything seems to be going right for Bob, until he starts to question Vanessa's sincerity for him.

I rather enjoyed Slater's performance as Bob. More so, when he had conversations with one of his goldfish. Over time, the character of Elisha Cuthbert brought him back into reality. Slater brings a little bit of witticism to his character. He took control over him and made Bob his own. Elisha Cuthbert, ravishing as always, also had her witt down great. I hope she is given a lot more roles such as this because she is fantastic when exposed in the right angle. He Was A Quiet Man explores the human mind just when it's about to snap and will leave you in it's dreamlike state.