Silent Secrets: An Intricately Crafted Psychological Thriller | thriller

Its title could also be unpromising, however “Speak No Evil” – a remake of an acclaimed Dutch/Danish movie – “turns out to be a brilliantly constructed psychological thriller built around one of James McAvoy's best performances for years”, stated Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday. “You really can't take your eyes off him.”

He performs Paddy, an alpha-male Brit who's on vacation in Italy along with his companion Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and son (Dan Hough) once they meet a wealthy American couple, Ben (Scoot McNairy) and Louise (Mackenzie Davis), and their daughter (Alix West Lefler). The two households hit it off – “sort of” – so when Paddy invitations the Americans to go to them at their residence within the West Country, they “hesitatingly accept” – a choice they will come to remorse. Director and co-writer James Watkins “ratchets up the tension and mounting menace superbly”, and although the final half-hour is on the predictable facet, that is “one of the best-made thrillers you'll see all year”.

This remake is “cleaner, tamer and less daring” than the unique, stated Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent. But it “has its own charms”, and McAvoy delivers “one of the most impressively repugnant performances of the year”.

The Americans make a sequence of rookie errors, stated Dulcie Pearce in The Sun: “they go to a remote cottage that doesn't have a phone signal”; they pay little heed to issues feeling “off”. Their biggest mistake, although, “is to visit people they met on holiday. For any of you who are considering getting in touch with that couple you shared a sangria with this summer”, “Speak No Evil” ought to function a “cautionary tale”.