Be wowed, worried and worked over by Speak No Evil

Disturbing yet funny, you can’t tell whether Speak No Evil has been designed to charm you or choke you, writes Leigh Paatsch.

From a top-notch thriller and a nonagenarian with a grudge to one of the year’s best docos, there’s plenty of great viewing options this week

SPEAK NO EVIL (MA15+)

Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) in Speak No Evil, directed by James Watkins.

Director: James Watkins (The Woman in Black)

Starring: James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy, Aisling Franciosi

Rating: ★★★★

Silence is not always golden

This consummately entertaining and unnerving thriller might be pulp, but it is pulp that leaves a lasting zing.

Particularly if you are the kind of viewer whose appetite for a relentless rollercoaster ride across an amusement park of emotions has gone unnourished for far too long.

So get set to be wowed, worried and well and truly worked over by Speak No Evil, a distinctly disturbing remake of a little-seen Dutch-Danish movie of the same name from 2022.

The premise might initially seem too simple. Shallow, even. However, the complexities that are gradually teased to the surface ultimately hit so hard they begin to leave marks on the psyche. Bruises, even.

And yet, to top it all off, the movie is funny, smart and self-aware at moments very much unexpected. It is almost like you can’t tell whether the experience has been designed to charm you or choke you.

Let’s get back to that basic premise. While on holiday in Italy, an American couple and their kid make fast friends with a British couple and their kid.

The Brits, Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi), implore the Yanks, Ben (Scoot McNairy) and Louise (Mackenzie Davis), to pay them a visit one day should they ever be round their way.

Paddy (James McAvoy) is registering increasingly higher readings on the NQR-o-meter.

Fast-forward a month or two later, and Ben, Louise and daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) have arrived at a remote property in rural England to spend the weekend with Paddy, Ciara and their young son Ant (Dan Hough).

Just as there are distinct lifestyle and behavioural contrasts between the two couples, there is a singular point of difference between their two children destined to have a profound impact upon the visit.

Agnes cannot let a treasured toy out of her sight. Her life falls apart without it. Ant cannot speak due to a congenital condition that has left him without a tongue. His inability to communicate seems to have drained him of all confidence and joy.

There’s no problem with confidence nor joy for Paddy and Ciara. They are happy-go-lucky when it comes to everything. Perhaps too much so in the eyes of Ben and Louise, who have been experiencing difficulties in their marriage.

If you think you know what’s coming next, let me assure you there is every likelihood you do not. Let’s just say that the hosts are registering increasingly higher readings on the NQR-o-meter, and that their guests are too preoccupied to notice.

This disconnect between two groups of people who barely know each other eventually sparks an unforgettably frenetic finale that both plays the senses like a grand piano, and tickles the funnybone with menacing glee.

Speak No Evil is now showing in general release

THELMA (M)

June Squibb in Thelma.

Rating:★★★★½

General release

If you don’t believe the maxim “good things come to those who wait,” you’d better have a chat with June Squibb. This legendary character actor (a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee for Nebraska) had to cool her heels until age 94 to land her first-ever leading role. And, wow, does she knock it right of the park in the title role of Thelma, a chase flick with a difference that just also happens to be one of the better movies of 2024.

The action begins when Thelma, a sweet-natured senior, is swindled out of $10K by internet scamsters. Armed with nothing but a dubious mailing address, our hard-done-by heroine nicks a motor scooter and makes tracks across the footpaths of suburban Los Angeles for a date with vengeance.

Richard Roundtree and June Squibb.

As cute and kind-spirited a presence Squibb most obviously can be, neither she (nor the movie as a whole) is content to play the late-in-life card to have us cutting her some slack. Nope, Squibb’s is a full-throttle performance, as robust and nuanced as any actor will deliver this year. Her remarkable character may have started out losing both the love of her life and the freedom of living independently. However, you can bet your bottom dollar there’s no way she will ever say goodbye to her self-belief. Co-stars Parker Posey, Richard Roundtree.

APOLLO 13: SURVIVAL (G)

Apollo 13: Survival chronicles the saga in stunning fine detail. Picture: Netflix

Rating:★★★★★

Now streaming on Netflix

This magnificent documentary chronicles the 1970’s Apollo 13 saga in stunning fine detail. If you’re assuming that the Tom Hanks movie on the same subject told you all you need to know about one of the most famous rescue missions in the history of mankind, you are making a big mistake. NASA have thrown open their vaults to the filmmakers, resulting in a clear and concise collage of footage, audio recordings and photographs (many of which have never been seen before) that makes a well-worn true story seem new and fresh again. Remarkably, the doco powerfully communicates what it must have been like for Commander Jim Lovell and his two fellow astronauts on Apollo 13, stranded over 300,000km from their home planet inside a space module smaller than a walk-in wardrobe.

Originally published as Be wowed, worried and worked over by Speak No Evil