Silence

Author(s): James Somerton
Location: NS, Canada

“Silence”

Directed By: Mike Nichols
Written By: James Somerton
Produced By: Tom Hanks

Principal Cast:

Liam Aiken as Jamie Summers
Geena Davis as Teresa Summers
Kevin Kline as Howard Summers
Glenn Close as Mrs. Hickey
Alexander Michaeleto as Matthew Vaughn
Michael Madsen as Matthew Vaughn Sr.

Tagline: "Based on a True Story"

Synopsis: It is May. The school year is almost over. Students are getting ready to go on family vacations, summer camps, or just sleep in for two months. Teachers are relieved that they get to take some well-deserved time off. Everyone is happy… except for Teresa and Howard Summers. They’re sitting in a hospital waiting to see if their son, Jamie, will ever wake up from his coma.

One week ago. School was let out an hour early because of the heat but Jamie Summers stayed behind to help his teacher, Mrs. Hickey, clean the chalkboards in his classroom. When Mrs. Hickey had finally told him to go home, the school ground was totally empty. No one was at the playground. The scratching noise of his shoes digging into the gravel seemed so loud. The sun was very hot and bright. It rose high up in the sky right over Jamie’s head. No shadows. By the time Jamie heard the noise from behind him, everything had turned black.

Several months earlier. Jamie Summers had always been a little different but his friends never cared. When he told them that he was gay, even at the young age of thirteen, they didn’t think anything of it. The only person who had ever confronted him about it was a boy three years older than him named Matthew Vaughn. He threatened to kill Jamie if he didn’t stop being gay. A few months later, Matthew would try to make good on that threat.

The heat is growing worse in June and the hospital’s air conditioning is working overtime. Everyone is sure that if Jamie wakes up now he will have severe brain damage. No one knows who did this to him. His friends think it was Matthew Vaughn but his father, Matthew Vaughn Sr., won’t even let his son speak to the police. And, he says, if his son did do it, Jamie deserved it anyway.

When Jamie does wake up, everyone is expecting a vegetable but he has almost no brain damage. He had developed epilepsy from the head trauma though. There’s one other problem. Jamie can’t remember the attack. He can't even remember it happening.

What the press would say:

I have seen a lot of movies this year. Some of them were very bad and some of them were very good. Some of them may even become classics. It’s hard to define “Silence” as any of these because it transcends them all. I never sit through the credits after watching a movie but I did this time, and not because I was terribly interested in who worked on the film, but because I had to let it sink in. Mike Nichols has directed a film that will resonate with me for a very long time. I have read a few other reviews before writing my own and I have noticed a similarity in most of them. The majority of these reviewers refer to “Silence” as a gay movie. I would normally be the first person to point this out but this film is not a gay movie. The main character happens to be gay and this fact creates the driving force of the film but that character could have been African American, Jewish, or of Middle Eastern decent. It wouldn’t have mattered because this film is really about intolerance in general and how one person who is different from another can become a victim of a hate-crime just because they are different. The cast knows this as well. Liam Aiken plays Jamie Summers, the victim in the story, and does it very well. He makes you believe him even when he’s in a coma. Geena Davis plays his mother and truly does deserve Oscar recognition for the roll. I have never seen an actress be so heartfelt with a roll in my life. When watching her play Teresa Summers I felt like a camera had just been set down in the hospital and I was watching the real life woman react to everything. Her husband Howard, played by Kevin Kline, is so against the fact that his son is gay that he refuses to believe that it’s true. But when he hears someone call his son a “faggot” he flies into a rage. Kevin Kline gives the best performance of his career in “Silence”. He tries to act so tough but you can see him falling apart the same way his wife is. He’s just doing it in a different way. Michael Madsen is so despicable as the father of Jamie’s attacker that you hate him from the first moment you hear him speak. His first lines of dialogue created protests from everyone in the theater I was in. When asked what he thought about what had happened to Jamie by a reporter he replies, “Probably came on to him. He deserved it.” I have never seen an audience react so angrily before. Granted, I was viewing this film in a pretty liberal city. James Somerton writes the screenplay and it is based on three chapters from his memoir “7 Days to the Weekend”. He writes it making Jamie only seem like a victim until he wakes up. I hope he has a good life,” is the last line spoken in the film and Jamie says it after seeing Matthew years after the attack.. I hope that when people see this movie they will see it for what it is and not what the hype around it is. It’s not a movie against homophobia. It’s a movie against intolerance in general. It’s a movie with fantastic acting and writing. It’s a movie you have to see. It’s the best movie I have seen this year.

POSSIBLE NOMINATIONS:
Best Picture
Best Director – Mike Nichols
Best Adapted Screenplay – James Somerton
Best Actress - Geena Davis
Best Supporting Actor – Kevin Kline
Best Supporting Actor - Michael Madsen