Review of Speak No Evil

Christian Tafdrup's 'Speak No Evil' left its mark, but I didn't think it was particularly great horror. The film's direction made a promising story rather plodding and predictable. I wondered if Tafdrup wanted to contrast cultures, easy-going Dutch v stiff strait-laced Danish etc., but the Danes have a reputation for being pretty wild and rebellious so that left me confused. Then as the story unfolded, it was harder and harder to understand how the Danish couple could really get trapped by their Dutch hosts. They picked up on the early 'warning signs' and apparently missed several opportunities to escape which no serious captor would have given them. In other words, 'Speak No Evil' has a plot with more 'holes' than a Swiss (Dutch?) cheese! The ending is dark and shocking, but happens at such a snail's pace its surely begging for a final 'twist', no? Does the director want to make a point with such an obvious but surely wrong ending? 'Speak No Evil' is morally ambiguous, but not in a good way. It's not convincing either, and even its darkly menacing soundtrack designed to tug at the emotions can't disguise the feeling of disappointment I was left with at the end of this depressing film.