Silent Fall (1994)

“Abuse victims are always the best actors. They have to be, to live their whole lives with the pain and shame pretending there is nothing wrong. It’s the greatest performance of all ” – Dr. Jake Rainer

Number of Times Seen – Twice (15 Dec 1999 and 2 Jun 2020)

Brief Synopsis – After witnessing his parents murder, a young autistic boy is questioned by a psychologist in order to find out the truth about what happened.

My Take on it – This is a film that I recall seeing yeras ago, but didn;t remember anything about it besides the fact taht it stared Richard Dreyfuss adn deals with an autistic child.

The premise of the film is quite intriguing but unfortunately it just isn;t powerful or interesting enough in way that they present things.

Dreyfuss is always able to bring his best to every role he ha played, but he isn’t given enough to work with here and his character seems far too superficial in all that he says and does.

The supporting cast is also very talented with Linda Hamilton, John Lithgow and J.T. Walsh yet they also aren’t developed well enough at all.

The story itself unfolds in an very interesting way which helps make things seem a bit more mysterious despite the fact that the plot is far too predictable by the way that they present things.

The dialogue isn’t powerful enough which unfortunately hurts things far too much because one would expect .

The autism aspect of the story unfortunately feels too much like a gimmick than something that would help to keep things feeling more unique in the way that the story could unfold.

Bottom Line – Intriguing premise that doesn’t work well enough. Dreyfuss is always able to bring his best to his performances, but he isn’t given enough to work with in this film. The story unfolds in an interesting way that helps make things a bit more mysterious even if things are far too predictable by the way that they present the story to us. The supporting cast is also stellar with Hamilton, Lithgow and Walsh helping out a lot even if their characters are far too underdeveloped. The dialogue is too weak for this kind of story and the autism aspect seems more like a gimmick than something that could further the story in a more fluid way.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Film debut of Ben Faulkner. It marks as his only film performance. (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy (5/10)