dbdumonteil
Although it insists on intellectual details about autism ,"silent fall" is a thriller as well as a -not very surprising- whodunit,no more no less.Autism replaces amnesia which is generally THE disease we find in this kind of movie which was not born yesterday (see Hitchcock's " spellbound" )The first part is more satisfying ,and even sometimes intriguing and the relationship shrink/child is not unlike that of "the sixth sense" (1999).Liv Tyler is less decorative than usual .But there are a lot of clichés :good shrink (Dreyfuss) / bad shrink,ponderous symbolism ( the boy cannot stand "round" things,hence his distaste for peas:you will find out why,do not worry),shrink's own story -his wife hints at a certain Billy,a former patient who committed suicide ,another similarity with "the sixth sense"-,and the cop"s love affair..The shrink knows he's walking on thin ice both literally and figuratively.They could have edited out the last sequence ,probably so-called symbolic, but actually witless .
Edoardo Licciardello
Okay, it will never make it into my list of masterpieces, maybe it won't even make it in the "really good movies", but stay assured you'll have a pretty good time watching this, provided that you accept the slaughtering of realism for the sake of a good-conceived story. Right, authistic people are not like Tim. And right, miss Tyler is much more beautiful than good-acting. But the story is interesting, entertaining at times, and thanks to its lack of realism in dealing with authism, can reach a "happy" ending without resorting to any Deus Ex Machina. And that, in today's US thrillers, is really a lot.
Jammies
I saw this movie a few years ago, I think when it was a new release on VHS... rented it with family/friends without knowing ANYTHING about it... I get scared easily in movies, and this movie absolutely petrified me... I was too scared to go to sleep that night, and didn't want to even leave the room because I was so frightened. I can't even remember if it was a decent movie, but I think that the suspense element must've worked if it freaked me out so much. See it... see if you're less of a wimp than I am... : )
Starcat Zeppo
I'll admit I bought this movie unseen off a discount rack. The fact that it was on a discount rack should've been my first clue. I expected that, because Dreyfuss delighted me so in "The Good-Bye Girl", "Jaws", and "Mr. Holland's Opus" that he could continue to do so.... WRONG. This movie starts out promising. The story idea here is intriguing. An autistic boy is the only witness to the murder of his parents, and Dreyfuss is a teacher to these challenged type of children. It goes down the toilet FAST when the facts of autism are tweeked and twisted to fit the lame direction this story takes. I have an Aunt who taught the mentally handicaped, and PRAYED she never watched this movie because it would have made her mad at the way it was conceived that an autistic child has the choice to learn. They don't. The movie goes off the deep end into stupidity the minute it looks like it MIGHT be good, and it never saves itself. I watched it once, and it now sits and collects dust among the other "stinkers" I bought on faith.
AD
