The Danish ‘ is presented in Sitges 2022Speak No Evil‘, a thriller with hints of (very black) dramedy that shows viewers the dangers of not talking about awkwardness out of politeness, leading to a twisted dynamic of unthinkable consequences. Director Christian Tafdrup spins around the concept of trusting strangers too quickly and allegorically exposes how excessive civility has a counterproductive part.
The idea that one should never talk to strangers is a recommended lesson that parents often teach their children, but it has a moralistic element that seeks to create a certain panic among different sectors of the population. Here the director poses almost a malevolent satire on the Nordic culture of taking good manners to the extremehowever there is a more nihilistic reading and it is how the utilitarian world in which we find ourselves has left diplomacy aside to a Hobbesian point, assimilating the point in which we find ourselves.
However, that reading is an interpretation that should not be extracted without toll. Its forty-year-old comedy tone—what has developed in the Western world under the nickname “dramedy”—indicates a somewhat sobering mood whose punishment falls on its main characters, a Danish family vacationing in Tuscany. Bjorn (Morten Burian) and Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch), parents of young Agnes (liva forsberg), they quickly become friends with a traveling family from the Netherlands. Patrick (Fedja van Huet) and Karin (karina smulders), parents of the quiet and curious Abel (Marius Damslev), they feel great affection for them.
Bad Education
Months later, the Danish family is invited to their country home, where free-spirited Patrick and Karin unleash the madness of their quirky ways. But when the Dutch family becomes too much for Bjørn and Louise, they soon discover that excessive politeness isn’t enough to escape a sinister game that gets complicated as in kind of a wicked camera piece. The film works best when its characters use politeness to explain cultural differences and empathy to handle misunderstandings.
Strategies to avoid confrontation and rationalize discomfort are exposed as a tactic that humans often employ to get out of difficult situations where they do not mean to offend, thus Tafdrups’s script functions as a game that explains why many people find it difficult to express how they really feelAnd even when they do, there’s a claustrophobic feeling of searching for the right words, making the dynamics on display very believable and wickedly disturbing.
Tafdrup manages to bring adult bullying tactics to life in all too recognizable ways. Patrick taunts Agnes for calling herself a vegetarian but still eating fish, and then drunkenly manipulates Bjorn into footing the foursome’s exorbitant dinner bill, which as a guest, Bjorn feels compelled to cover without qualms. Until they get to have behaviors too provocative not to generate an alarm that is very implausibleno matter how deeply rooted good education is.
Moral with dubious taste
The best moments of ‘Speak No Evil’ happen when it gives no clues as to where it’s going, but there comes a turning point where the dynamic changes and it’s clear that the rehearsed kindness of the first act hides something much darker, to the point where The movie is predictable. Tafdrup emphasizes his idea of what we are going to see with the horror musical score placed in innocuous scenes, such as the two families taking a walk through a beautiful landscape, and he twists towards something looking to be Yorgos Lanthimos or Haneke.
There are readings that can expose the monotonous existence of the middle or upper class, seen as a “spiritual death” with psychic consequences of being comfortable thanks to the material and, however, personally dissatisfied. But history decides to pass on those reflections and is heading towards an almost inevitable ending for somewhat seasoned viewersthat have gone through drinks like ‘Twentynine Palms’ (2003) turning out to be so tremendous at the end of the road that it’s hard not to savor a reactionary residue in the proceeding.
If there are stories to scare children, there are others to scare parents. ‘Speak no Evil’ is one of the latter, and despite the quartet of central actors being outstanding throughout, this lesson in the perils of good manners fails to make their awkwardness have any justifiable effect, other than the condemnation of a pusillanimous middle class that, in a very vague interpretation, It could serve as a revulsive against social conformism against custom and mediocrity against those who only seek the benefit of a few at the expense of the majority.