Director Report Card: Cate Shortland (2006)

2. The Silence

When introducing Cate Shortland, I focused mostly on her short film. However, she has also done quite a bit of work in Australian television. She directed multiple episodes of the series “Bad Cop, Bad Cop” and “The Secret Life of Us.” (I don't know what either of those are.) After “Somersault” caused a stir in her home country, she was invited back to TV to direct “The Silence.” The murder mystery/cop thriller was originally aired in two parts over two nights. Over here in America, it was released as one two hour feature. It received somewhat mixed reviews. Most people don't even seem to consider it Shortland's second feature but I am more thorough than that, so here we are. 

Detective Richard Treloar was recently dismissed from the police force. After seeing a man murder a woman, he lost it and nearly beat the guy to death. Deeply affected by the event – and still harboring trauma from his parent-less childhood – Treloar has been sent to work in the Police Museum. There, he combs over old crime scene photographs for an exhibition. That is when he notices the same woman, carrying a birthday present and wearing a silky gown, in several photos... Including one where she's dead. He becomes obsessed with the cold case, tracking down forty-year-old leads to solve the murder. Soon enough, he discovers he is in danger.

I like to think otherwise but it seems the obsession with prime time cop/detective shows is not a uniquely American characteristic. Honestly, I think the whole world loves the format. Australia cop shows are, or at least where at one point, pretty well respected. If “The Silence” is any indication, they are quite a bit grittier than American programs. The film contains graphic violence in the crime scene photos, quite a bit of nudity, and more than a few four-letter words. Broadcast standard differences aside, “The Silence” proves to a mildly involving mystery. The story is easy-to-follow, with enough twist and turns to keep you guessing but never becoming convoluted. It draws you in, as you try to figure out how these story threads connect.

Yet it's apparent that “The Silence” is not setting out to be just an involving murder/mystery. The telefilm has higher aspirations to art. The script has several thematic threads strewn throughout. The least interesting of which, disappointingly, takes up the most time. Richard is clearly haunted by the woman he failed to rescued. We see the crime scene photos concerning that death early in the film. When he discovers the photos of the dead woman from the sixties, and becomes obsessed with solving the crime, the link is obvious. If he solves the murder from the past, he will symbolically be resolving the murder from his present. It's the sort of obvious, almost hacky, attempt to add depth to a story that you see a lot.

Similarly, “The Silence” places a great deal of emphasis on the power of photographs. Richard looks over the old crime scene photographs, obsessing over the tiniest details. Such as the presence of a matchbook or some cigarettes. For his birthday, Richard's girlfriend digs up the only photographs from his childhood as a gift.  It doesn't take the viewer a lot of time to start to see the link between one set of photos and the other. Thus, Richard's attempt to resolve this decades old murder becomes a chance to resolve the trauma of his own abandoned childhood. I wish “The Silence” touched upon the meaning of photographs more. Photographs are record of the past, which can be looked back on but never changed. It's sort of in the movie but not really.

A more interesting layer in “The Silence” concerns Richard's relationship with the women around him. As he becomes obsessed with the woman in the crime scene photos, he neglects his girlfriend. He verbally abuses his police-assigned psychotherapist. He barks orders at the assistant working him on the museum project, also a young woman.  Even though he knows nothing about the woman in photograph, he essentially falls in love with her, even having fantasies about her. In other words, he's more interested in literally two-dimensional women than real, flesh-and-blood ones. Within “The Silence,” there's a criticism of a certain type of shallow, toxic guy. He values the unidentified woman because he can project any feeling he wants on her. Instead of the actual women, who have thoughts and motivations of their own that he doesn't want to grapple with.

All of these interesting layers I'm talking about here, this is before a major plot twist that occurs over halfway through the film. At that point, “The Silence” almost totally falls apart. The connection between the protagonist and his object of obsession are made much more explicit. All the ambiguity is tossed out. The plot becomes far too neat and interconnected, in a way that strains credibility. The film then doesn't address the new, weird implications this plot twist brings up. It's really disappointing and a bad example of a style of screenwriting, where everything that happens in a story must relate to, build on, everything else in the story. Man, it's okay for stuff to just exist on its own sometimes. “The Silence” definitely fails in that regard.

Watching “The Silence” right after “Somersault,” you can see that Cate Shortland did not let the limitations of television hold back her visual sense. This is probably because “The Silence” has the same cinematographer, Robert Humphreys, as Shortland's debut. You see a definite continuity between the two films. Both have a gritty visual style, the camera work often being handheld. You don't see the same use of color that you saw in “Somersault.” There's a very brief moment, where a character creeps around a darkened house, bathed in deep shadows, that I liked. Otherwise, “The Silence” has the same gray, washed-out, “naturalistic” aesthetic you associate with gritty cop shows. Apparently that is true all over the world.

Still, you can see some of the same directorial instincts navigating both films. Even some of the odder, tackier elements from “Somersault” are maintained here. Such as a melodramatic fade-to-white. Or a moment where a character falls to the ground, their image ghosting through the air for a second. Even if this was likely a work-for-hire gig for Shortland, you do see some of the same themes being carried over from “Somersault.” Both movies have fractured protagonists ultimately in search of self-forgiveness as much as anything else. The interest in the relationship between parents and their children continues here as well. Though I'm only two films into her career, it's clear that there is such a thing as “the Cate Shortland aesthetic” emerging.

“The Silence” is a lead role for Richard Roxburgh. Here in the states, Roxburgh is best known for his extremely hammy turns as goofy villains in big budget studio fare, like “Moulin Rouge!,” “Van Helsing,” or “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.” I have no idea how well known he is in his native Australian but it seems his breakout role was in an earlier TV movie about cops. Roxburgh definitely shows more range here than I'm use to from him. He's good at letting heavy emotions bubble just under the surface, always on the verge of boiling over. He is, indeed, playing a man on the edge. Roxburgh gets at the deeper, complicated feelings of the character without overdoing it. It's a solid performance.

Another reason I wanted to check out “The Silence” is because it also features Essie Davis. Like a lot of genre fans, I was blown away by Davis' performance in “The Babadook,” so it was exciting to see her in something else. Here, she plays Juliet, Richard's shrink. Even though Davis is also Australian, the character is from Ireland. This causes the actress to affect a heavy, sometimes difficult-to-decipher accent. Despite that, Davis still gives an empathetic performance. She even manages to bring some mild humor to the part, in a scene where she complains about her loud neighbors. Though I'm mildly baffled by the movie's decision to play Juliet's relationship with Richard as romantic...

There's a number of talented women in “The Silence's” supporting cast. Emily Barclay plays Evelyn, Richard's put-upon assistant. Barclay has good chemistry with Roxburgh and it's amusing watching the gruff cop and sarcastic younger woman play off each other. Alice McConnell plays Helen, Richard's neglected girlfriend. Even if that subplot proves hopelessly underdeveloped, McConnell still shows off an impressive range. Jennifer Hagan appears in the brief role of Olive, a retired madam of a brothel that Richard interviews on his quest for information. Hagan is amusingly snippy as a hardened old lady who doesn't take kindly to questions.

It does not seem “The Silence” made much of a splash in Australia. Though it was nominated for a few Australian Film Institute awards, in the television division, it did not win any. I think the film would probably be completely overlooked if not for its director. For whatever reason, the Weinstein Company distributed the movie on DVD here in America... But not before providing it with a hilariously misleading cover art. If you rented “The Silence” based on that artwork, you'll be disappointed to find it contains no gun fights or explosions. They even Photoshopped the actresses' faces onto bustier model's bodies. Hilarious. As for the movie itself, it begins as a mildly compelling character study and mystery, before sloppier narrative instincts cause it to end on a complete shrug. [Grade: C+]