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6.2/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.2/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. The Silent Witness remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you like movies where everyone talks like they are reading from a manual on how to be polite, this is your jam. It is definitely for the crowd that prefers a quiet trial over a car chase. If you need something with a pulse, you will probably be bored out of your mind within ten minutes.
Honestly, the whole thing feels like a stage play that someone forgot to take off the stage. The pacing is just glacial. Lionel Atwill is doing his best, but he’s trapped in a script that’s about as flexible as a brick wall.
There is this one moment during the trial where a character just stares at the floor for what feels like a week. It made me check my watch, twice. 🕰️
You can tell the budget was tight, or maybe just focused entirely on the suits. Everyone is dressed so impeccably, yet the emotional stakes feel about as high as a puddle in a driveway.
It’s nowhere near as gripping as something like Frozen River, which knows how to make silence actually mean something. Here, the silence is just… silence.
It’s not a complete disaster, but it’s definitely not something I’d suggest for a Friday night. It’s a movie that exists, and that’s about all the praise I can muster. Sometimes it’s better to just skip the classics if they aren't actually fun to watch. 🤷♂️