Review of He Was a Quiet Man (2007) by John I — 02 Jan 2009

Let's get to the premise: What would it be like if that repressive quiet person, who you're always expecting to shoot up the office one day, suddenly became a hero and got everything he had envied of his co-workers letting free that majestic bird in his bitter little heart? Yep then let us wash our hands of such nonsense and get back to reality. Leaving us right where we frustratingly started.

Now the acting: Elisha Cutherbert was surprisingly decent in her role as a fast rising office executive/ ho-bag (thank you Erin) who gets paralyzed from the neck down. Her dialogue is blunt and mechanical (though for the sake of the premise, it is a social inept man rendering a unattainable woman in his mind, so on that level it is defensible I suppose) and she does a decent job with it, certainly not over-acting *cough* Jessica Biel *cough cough*.

Christian Slater, was well like he is in most of the films I've seen him in, muttering half the dialogue, stoop shouldered and generally uninteresting (again in context this is defensible.).

William H. Macy (surprised he wasn't playing the lead, that resume of his is littered with characters who always get the short end of the stick.) He has a few brief scenes, nothing special really, though I do always enjoy when I see him come on screen; the man makes me smile.

Cinematography: Was actually pretty decent, objects fading like specters to hint at surreality, a few meager attempts at mind hidden/mind revealed visual metaphors, angled claustrophobic shots to give the sense of smallness. Some of it was old, a few things were new and there was a lot of CGI thrown in between.

Tone: Some confused line between dark comedy and introspectic drama ( I actually really enjoyed some of the humor, but alas this writer had more noble intentions).

Theme : "What do you expect when you treat a person like this? I mean come on!" That's a paraphrase but I think it expresses the film better than the actual one...that's given at the end...in the dialogue... those ellipses represent anger...

(annoying when someone smacks you in the face and then tells how they did it, isn't it?).

Best stolen moment: Vomit, all over the breasts. God I love vomit.