As we left the cinema, I was asked what I thought of Silent Hill. I said "average", and as the word left my mouth I knew I didn't actually agree with my on-the-spot assessment of the film. Describing this film as average is a long way from fair; pretty much everything about the film is above average. And yet, at that moment, my overall opinion was damaged by a handful of elements that I feel could have been better, and that I obviously felt were significant enough to detract from the film as a whole.
The film does many things right: Christophe Gans' direction is astonishing from the outset. He directs with style and creativity and after some of the mediocre, unimaginative rubbish I've watched lately Silent Hill is like a breath of fresh air. Or perhaps rancid, decaying air is a more appropriate description? There are obvious homages to the games upon which the film is based thanks to the use of certain camera angles, but the film isn't harmed by this, and the trick isn't over-used. Even a great director can't produce a decent looking film if the set design isn't up to much, and thankfully the look of the film is superb. The smoke filled town is suitably creepy, and the eerie industrial-subterranean locations (which could potentially have looked so tacky) are genuinely unsettling.
The soundtrack is similarly excellent, and yet for some reason there are no plans to release a CD. It fluctuates between haunting, piano-driven melodies, and industrial crunching to great effect. The use of sound in general is good too - with various creepy little details being emphasised as a result.
It's with the performances that the cracks start to appear, although admittedly only one large, Sean Bean shaped crack at this stage. Bean turns in a masterclass on how not to do an American accent, and isn't terribly convincing as a result. The fact that his part is so underwritten probably doesn't do him any favours, but I'll come to that in due course. Bean's performance doesn't really detract from the film significantly thanks to the other performances, most significantly Radha Mitchell. Nothing could have destroyed the film more than a poor performance from Mitchell, and while it's true, her accent does slip a few times (although she can only aspire to give such an authoritative schooling regarding bad accents as Bean does) on the whole she's brilliant. I've been a fan of Mitchell since Pitch Black, and I might go so far as to say she's my favourite actress working today. Maybe my assessment of her is biased as a result of this, but I think she does a fantastic job. She's rarely off screen and is required to react with a convincing sense of horror to cgi beasties, and actors in monster costumes, a task which many actors fail to achieve. I look forward to seeing her in Greg McLean's upcoming creature-feature Rogue. Little Jodelle Ferland isn't bad either, and manages to convey a suitable amount of menace. I was concerned that her Kingdom Hospital performance might be repeated her, but she's far better than I expected.
Article comments
1 - RJ Elliott
So, I go out on a "date" (with an ex-gf) and see this movie...the first substantive thing she says to me (about an hour into the movie) is that she wants the soundtrack for her birthday (hint, hint).
By the end of the movie, we were both agreeing that it was like a bad LSD trip - disturbing, unintelligible crap. However, it did have a couple cool scenes of barbed-wire body-shredding, and then there was a torso spewing muriatic acid or whatnot at a cop...so I really can't in good conscience give it less than a C-...
2 - Daniel Woolstencroft
Thanks for the comment RJ - sorry to hear you didn't enjoy this as much as you'd hoped, but a C isn't too bad is it?
As for the soundtrack, there seems to be plenty of people who want to get hold of it, so maybe there's hope. Failing that, it might be worth giving the game soundtracks a try - I've heard they're similar.