The Quiet

Taken in by a highly dysfunctional family, an apparently deaf-mute teen orphan (Camilla Belle) becomes a sounding board for other people’s most licentious impulses, like incest and murder. It’s almost a good idea for a trashy thriller, or even for a sophisticated psychological drama, but this movie is neither of those things, nor even an intentional comedy. The Quiet tries to cultivate a titillating air of pervy mystery but then chickens out and gets all archly confessional. If it makes you feel creepy, it’s only in that “maybe tell the therapist instead of telling me” kind of way. Director Jamie Babbit takes Abdi Nazemian and Micah Schraft’s goth-poseur script way too seriously and consequently finds herself straining for lyricism. If there is any, it must have fallen on deaf ears.