Review of He Was a Quiet Man (2007) by Tibor B — 30 Jul 2008

Curious little movie, (think Office Space or Dilbert meets Taxi Driver and Fight Club!) which seemed to be released to little or no promotion late last year. Christian Slater is Bob, a nothingman in a big corporation, who plots to take out his colleagues as all quiet loners obviously do.

Just as he plucks up the courage another worker shoots a number of colleagues, including Bob's fantasy girl Executive PA Vanessa, Elisha Cuthbert. Bob is celebrated as a hero as he uses his own loaded gun to take down the killer and becomes the paralysed Vanessa's carer and begins a poignant relationship with her.

Never predictable, the film never fully seems to be sure of what its about and tries to be many things at once. Cuthbert is pretty, but out of her depth portraying the subtleties of the relationship and Slater has never been so restrained, playing almost unrecognizably behind middle-aged make-up effects.

The films fantasy sequence special effects are quite poor, but this is understandable as there was very little budget - the script must have scared off all the big studios. You'll either love or hate the finale - if you've grown to like the characters it's a definite downer.

Definitely one of those "quiet" little underdog movies worth checking out but there are a few too many moments that let the film down.