Its title may be unpromising, but “Speak No Evil” – a remake of an acclaimed Dutch/Danish film – “turns out to be a brilliantly constructed psychological thriller built around one of James McAvoy’s best performances for years”, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday. “You really can’t take your eyes off him.”
He plays Paddy, an alpha-male Brit who is on holiday in Italy with his partner Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and son (Dan Hough) when they meet a rich American couple, Ben (Scoot McNairy) and Louise (Mackenzie Davis), and their daughter (Alix West Lefler). The two families hit it off – “sort of” – so when Paddy invites the Americans to visit them at their home in the West Country, they “hesitatingly accept” – a decision they’ll come to regret. Director and co-writer James Watkins “ratchets up the tension and mounting menace superbly”, and though the last half-hour is on the predictable side, this is “one of the best-made thrillers you’ll see all year”.
This remake is “cleaner, tamer and less daring” than the original, said Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent. But it “has its own charms”, and McAvoy delivers “one of the most impressively repugnant performances of the year”.
The Americans make a series of rookie errors, said Dulcie Pearce in The Sun: “they go to a remote cottage that doesn’t have a phone signal”; they pay little heed to things feeling “off”. Their greatest mistake, though, “is to visit people they met on holiday. For any of you who are considering getting in touch with that couple you shared a sangria with this summer”, “Speak No Evil” should serve as a “cautionary tale”.