Don't Tell A Soul (2021)

directed by Alex McAulay

USA

83 minutes

3.5 stars out of 5

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This movie may have other villains, but the backdrop of industrial decay, middle-American poverty, and the boredom of coming of age are the trifecta that pull the strings. A general feeling of hopelessness pervades it all: None of the characters are getting the life they should have, beset either by family issues or by problems they brought upon themselves. Don't Tell a Soul is a character study about how various people react to their feelings of helplessness and how other people take advantage of those feelings.

It's also one of those movies with a concept that sounds ridiculous but makes sense in context. Two boys running from a security guard after stealing money for their sick mother accidentally end up trapping the guard in a random hole in the woods after he trips and falls into it, and the film is about their responses to that and ideas of what to do with this guy now that they essentially have the power to decide whether he lives or dies (or at least is horribly uncomfortable for a long time). This is all played straight despite the inherent comedy of falling into a big hole, and I think maybe that's why I'm seeing some negative reviews. I am surprised that the general response to this film isn't more positive, because even though it was at times slow and maybe a little difficult to believe, I thought it was executed really well and took its time exploring issues that a lot of other movies would just breeze by. Again, this is pretty much wholly a character-driven movie- if you're expecting horror based off of the dark poster and the vaguely sinister title, you'll be disappointed.

I'm going to get into some spoilers from here on out, because as usual it's hard to discuss the complexities of this film without going into more depth than would allow for an unbiased viewing of it. There's not a whole lot to be spoiled in this, though, because even if you do find out its main twist it still doesn't change the fact that the movie is good. But be forewarned anyway.

So the whole idea of this is basically to look at how a vulnerable character can be manipulated, and also the various ways in which people respond to their own vulnerability, from Jack Dylan Grazer's character latching onto whoever is willing to be a father figure for him, even if that person is obviously dangerous, to his older brother's becoming a bully and a horrible person in an effort to eliminate all weakness from himself. The least-fleshed-out character is Rainn Wilson's fake security guard in a hole- ironic, because he's the one with the most facets to his backstory. Everyone else is who they say they are, but just to the degree that any random person off the street is who they say they are, which is to say that everyone has their stories. But the guy in the hole has genuine secrets where everyone else just has baggage. You can see Grazer's character be slowly drawn in by him, and he doesn't even have to lie about himself to ensnare the kid- the way he jerks the two impressionable boys around according to his own whims is scary, but somehow he does genuinely seem to care about them, in some weird twisted way. This is why it's so easy for the younger brother to get attached to him: If his older brother, the person who he's supposed to be closer to than anyone, hates him and is violent towards him, then that's the only kind of relationship he knows how to form, so the guard being a violent person is not a deal-breaker to him as long as he is also willing to show him some kindness where his brother refuses to.

It's really a look at how a good person can be broken down by the world around them, turning down a darker path without even realizing it. There is no explicitly visible social issue here, like drugs or racial violence; the cracks that an abusive relationship and a lack of support and resources make in a person are shown to be universal and affect anybody so long as they were unlucky enough to not be born into riches.

I really don't know how I felt about the very end as it was the only part of the film that seemed to fall into the trap of a more rose-tinted view of the world, which was pretty out of character given how the rest of it was so depressingly realistic. I'm not sure I go for the idea of redemption for somebody as determined to prove themselves a boorish, violent person as the older brother. I guess it's different with teenagers and that may be the point of the older brother's last-minute turnaround: You can either realize what path you're going down and correct it, or you can become someone like the guy stuck in the hole.