Just came out of the screening for The Quiet and ... you know ... I could've written the review just as the Q and A was going on ... I got an open wireless connection from inside the theatre at the Varsity. FYI.

Anyhoo, while I'm still rather bitter about director Jamie Babbit being whisked away by festival officials before she could autograph my DVD copy of But, I'm A Cheerleader, her second feature, making its World Premiere here is a disturbingly fantastically twisted piece of drama.

And I mean that in a good way ...

When Dot (Camilla Belle) is sent to live with her god parents (Martin Donovan and Edie Falco) after her father passes, her isolation and loneliness is even more heightened by her condition as a deaf-mute. Prissy god sister Nina (Elisha Cuthbert) isn't too pleased to have another body around but soon realizes the benefit of having someone to talk to, who isn't able to answer back. Soon, classmates start to reveal their deepest darkest secrets and true feelings to the horror and perhaps disgust of Dot.

I'm unsure what is more disturbing about human nature ... the fact that people reveal their true selves in the company of people who they think can keep their secret, or the fact that people use other people as vessels to purge themselves of their inner demons ... and then those people have to purge the demons that have been cast upon them and the cycle continues and expands. Which poses another question, can a secret really remain a secret if two people know about it? And ultimately, can a secret really be kept quiet for long?

Jamie Babbit has done well in crafting this well written suspense thriller into a jaw clenching ride from start to finish. Numerous twists and turns force us along this borderline-plausible storyline that in the end, we really actually care and empathize with the characters. The Quiet shouldn't be silenced for long.