Speak No Evil


After meeting during a glorious Tuscany vacation, American expats Ben (Scoot McNairy, AMC’s ‘Halt and Catch Fire’) and Louise Dalton (Mackenzie Davis, AMC’s ‘Halt and Catch Fire’) are invited to the West Country farm of Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi, “The Nightingale,” “Stopmotion”), the charmed and charming couple whose joie de vivre is missing from their lives.  Louise’s instincts say no, but Ben talks her into it and the couple’s ability to talk themselves out of believing what red flags are telling them will lead them down a dark path in “Speak No Evil.”


Laura's Review: B

Writer/director James Watkins (“Eden Lake”) scores a hit and a miss adapting the Tafdrup brothers’ original Danish film, making the visiting couple’s conflict avoidance more natural but totaling reconfiguring the climax into a more conventionally satisfying ending.  The other major difference is the motivation of the visiting couple, male ego and macho bonding, touched upon here, initiating the Danish version’s, a faltering marriage instigating the remake.  Of course Watkins has James McAvoy in the lead, always dependable for some hair-raising, irreverent fun.

Take for example another adjustment here, McAvoy’s Paddy winning over the Daltons on vacation by ridding them all of a boring Danish couple by inviting them to debate personal choices in the use of toilet paper, the foursome cackling over the other couple’s reaction.  The Daltons’ daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler, “The Good Nurse”) still has a stuffed rabbit she cannot bear to be parted with, this time named Hoppy and Paddy earns their gratitude returning it after it was lost (Or was it?  Several early scenes in this film transitioned so abruptly, I wondered if there was an issue with the print projected at our screening.)

When the Daltons return to London, we’ll learn that Ben is struggling, having lost the gig he moved his family for, and that tensions are bubbling up beneath the surface, Louise struggling to maintain a supportive stance.  She wants nothing to do with responding to Paddy’s postcard reiterating the invitation to visit, but reneges, thinking it might do Ben – and their marriage – some good.

From the point where they arrive at Paddy and Ciara’s sprawling, remote farmhouse, the film begins to mirror the Tafdrups' beat for beat.  Paddy’s slaughtered a goose for their welcome dinner, despite Louise’s oft commented upon vegetarianism.  Agnes is given a bed on the floor of Paddy and Ciara’s mute son Ant’s (Dan Hough) attic room.  Paddy’s behavior is overly aggressive, crossing lines.  His and the much younger Ciara’s sexually passionate relationship, glimpsed by Ben in Tuscany, is put on full display.  He treats Ant horribly and Ciara criticizes Agnes’s table manners.  They invite the Daltons for a special dinner, announce the kids are being left with Syrian refugee Muhjid (Motaz Malhees), then stiff them with the check after a fancy meal.  Louise has enough when she goes to check on Agnes in the middle of the night and finds Ant’s room empty, both children asleep in Paddy and Ciara’s bed and gets Ben to leave before dawn, but once again, Hoppy is left behind and Agnes is frantic.  Their return becomes a nightmare when Ant reveals the truth to Agnes, who photographs the evidence to show her parents.

Watkins has layered in class undertones, Paddy mocking liberal city values such as line caught tuna and Louise’s objections to shooting wildlife, Ciara’s correction of Agnes explained as behavior learned from an orphanage upbringing.  The main battle of wills is between the uber masculine Paddy and the fiercely maternal Louise, Davis standing up more and more to McAvoy’s boundary pushing baiting.  McNairy is the essence of emasculated male while Franciosi is kittenish submissive to McAvoy’s alpha wolf.  Lefler and Hough both add different elements to the volatile mix.

The Danish version of “Speak More Evil” was more chilling while this one takes a more Hollywood route.  They both have their pluses and minuses, but McAvoy is always a strong draw and he doesn’t disappoint here.



Universal Pictures releases "Speak No Evil" in theaters on 9/13/24.