Welcome to How Gay Is It? Out's review series where, using our state-of-the-art Eggplant Rating System, we determine just how queer some of pop culture's buzziest films and TV shows are! (Editor's note: this post contains spoilers for Universal Pictures' Speak No Evil.)
James McAvoy is serving up muscled madness in the new psychological thriller, Speak No Evil.
The Scottish heartthrob plays the patriarch of a family who makes vacation friends with another household, and it’s pretty much downhill from there. Relationships like that should be ephemeral, and the idea of extending them is, for many, an outright horror film in and of itself. Yet this is the structure Speak No Evil saddles us with.
Adapted from a 2022 Danish film of the same name, we found ourselves uneasy from the get-go with this remake. Perhaps the overly chummy nature of McAvoy’s Paddy, or his wife Ciara (played by Aisling Franciosi) was intended to be off putting from the get go, but it did make it hard to invest in the logic of why the family they meet on vacation would agree to meet up again. Our second couple is played by Happiest Season and Halt and Catch Fire alumni Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy. Both families also have children around the same age.
Plot wise, nothing feels particularly innovative, the strength of the film instead relies on the performances. McAvoy excels at the moments where he’s meant to be charming, and turns on a dime into something more sinister. However, the film abuses this ability of his and peppers in too many moments that rely on the skill, thus eventually diluting any sense of questioning an audience might have about the motivations of the character.
We’ve seen him turn in plenty of nuanced performances in the genre (and plenty of not so nuanced ones, we’re looking at you Glass), so it’s a shame to see him almost become a victim of his own expertise here. We’d love to see him used in a more precise way in the overall plot (versus individual standout scenes of sharpness, which unfortunately do not an entire movie make).
Blumhouse/Universal Pictures
Davis is the only character with any sense in the film, and yet is doomed to be dismissed. This feels pretty antiquated in 2024. While oftentimes horror and thrillers rely on anyone who has a modicum of logic being ignored, we found it a bit tiresome in Speak No Evil. Though it wouldn’t have hit a feature film runtime if they’d just listened to reason, so here we are.
Now to the mystery we at Out must dare to speak of: How gay is it?! Dipping into daddy issues gay. For the most part, the film is very hetero-leaning (and this is one of those cases we’re glad the queer community isn’t being dragged into it as some sort of token). There are a few underlying moments of masculine envy between McNairy’s more reserved character in comparison to McAvoy’s bold and body-ody-ody built one.
The film is definitely misogynistic, sometimes intentionally to serve the loose purpose of the film, sometimes unintentionally. In the hands of a lesser actress, Davis’ role would’ve been an upsettingly sad trope of a naggy know-it-all. She’s able to mitigate some of the inherent issues the story throws at her, but it was frustrating to witness.
Motivations wise, there are muddied threads of a story here and there, but nothing felt particularly compelling. If you’re looking for a turn-your-brain-off thriller, this seems serviceable. However, it’s still frustrating, as it had the potential to go above and beyond given the talent pool it was drawing from. We didn’t have a terrible time watching Speak No Evil, though we’re frustrated with it on par with the way we’re frustrated with many films of the same genre. We give it a 3.6 out of 5 stars overall. As for our patented Eggplant Rating System, we’ll give it a 1 out of 5 for the male magnetism McEvoy displays.
Speak No Evil is now playing in theaters.
