A detective returns to duty after an injury leaves him with permanent hearing loss. Tasked with interpreting for a deaf witness to a murder, they find themselves cornered in a rundown apartment building where the killers try to eliminate her. A film by Brad Anderson, starring Joel Kinnaman, Sandra Mae Frank, Mekhi Phifer, Michael Eklund, Anthony Grant, Jonathan Koensgen, and Mark Strong.

Boston police detective Frank Shaw (Joel Kinnaman) and his partner Doug Slater (Mark Strong) visit the port in Boston Harbor to question Jimmy Dent (Marko Nikolic) without a warrant. What should have been a straightforward job quickly escalates when Jimmy pulls a gun hidden in his lunchbox and takes one of the workers hostage.

Jimmy fires his gun and ditches the hostage as he flees the scene. Frank races after him through the maze of shipping containers. As Jimmy tries to escape, he is suddenly hit by a passing pickup truck. Frank, running at full speed, is unable to stop in time and smashes his head into the pickup’s window. He falls back, knocking his head on the ground. The impact causes a bleeding wound on his head and also damages his hearing, leaving him partially impaired.

Eleven months after the accident, an audiologist (Becky Camilleri) conducts a hearing test on Frank. Based on the results, she provides a conclusive diagnosis – the damage to his cochlea is becoming more aggressive over time. She recommends that Frank dedicate more time to learning American Sign Language (ASL), as this will help prepare him for the possibility of more profound hearing loss in the future. The audiologist explains that, given the nature of Frank’s injury, cochlear implants may not be a viable treatment option for him.

Frank grows increasingly frustrated and withdrawn as he struggles with his day-to-day desk job. The strange noises from his hearing aids distract him, and he feels that without his full hearing, he can no longer perform his duties as effectively as he did when he was a police detective. One day, while at a bar, Doug approaches Frank and asks for his help with a case. There’s a witness in the Hyde Park murders who is deaf, and the department’s interpreter is off duty until next week. Doug explains that time is of the essence, and he really needs Frank’s assistance on this. Although Frank initially refuses, he eventually agrees to help after Doug persists.

At a rundown apartment building, Frank and Doug meet the witness – a deaf photographer named Ava Fremont (Sandra Mae Frank). Initially, Ava is upset to discover that Frank is not a professional interpreter. However, Frank pleads for a chance, using a humorous American Sign Language (ASL) sign he recently learned, which means “I’m just an old dog trying to learn new tricks.” This gesture from Frank helps put Ava at ease, and she eventually allows them inside to take her statement. Ava recounts what she witnessed that night in the alley where two drug dealers were murdered. She then hands over her phone, which contains footage of the group of men shooting the dealers.

While Frank excuses himself to use Ava’s bathroom to send a message to his daughter Sam (Katrina Lupi), he becomes distracted by a Naloxone Hydrochloride kit on the shelf. This discovery leads him to suspect that Ava may not have been truthful about her whereabouts that night when she claimed to be out taking photos. Instead, he realizes she might be a drug addict who went to buy drugs from those dealers. As he leaves with Doug, Frank accidentally leaves his phone on the bathroom sink.

When Frank realizes he forgot his phone in Ava’s apartment, he makes a U-turn to go back. Meanwhile, a group of men from Ava’s video arrive at the building. Led by Mason Lynch (Mekhi Phifer), they break into Ava’s apartment to question her about whether she made copies of the video and if anyone else has seen it, to which she denies both.

However, Mason has no intention of letting her live; he plans to kill her by overdosing her to make it look like an accident. Just as Mason is about to inject Ava, Frank breaks in through the window, catching them by surprise and managing to rescue her.

Frank and Ava flee the apartment and hide in a vacant room since everyone in the building has been evicted, and it is soon to be demolished to make way for luxury condominiums. They find themselves trapped inside, surrounded by armed men. Frank soon learns the shocking truth: the men pursuing them are crooks and corrupt cops who will stop at nothing to eliminate the witness and cover up their misdeeds.

Directed by American filmmaker Brad Anderson and written by Dan Hall, THE SILENT HOUR is a crime thriller with an intriguing premise – a hearing-impaired detective and a deaf murder witness find themselves trapped in a rundown building, surrounded by the very killers trying to silence the witness.

Sandra Mae Frank delivers an outstanding performance as Ava Fremont, the deaf photographer who unwittingly becomes a key witness to a brutal murder. I love the fact that they cast a deaf actress to play the crucial role as the film is almost entirely built around her character.

Sandra Mae Frank is an American actress recognized for her performances in theater, film, and television. She is a prominent advocate for the representation of deaf actors in the entertainment industry. She made history as the first and, to date, only deaf actor to perform the lead role in a Broadway musical, portraying Wendla in Spring Awakening.

However, despite the strong setup and compelling lead characters, the film ultimately falls short, failing to fully capitalize on its high-stakes conceit and leaving audiences wanting a more memorable, exciting final product.

The narrative is pretty straightforward, without any real surprises or unexpected twists. For instance, the scene where Frank stumbles upon the Naloxone kit in the bathroom feels a bit obvious. You can pretty much guess it’ll end up being used somehow by the end of the film. I actually like the inclusion of the Naloxone kit plot point, as I can’t recall seeing that in a movie before. But the way it’s incorporated in this film just feels a little too predictable.

Naloxone kits are essential tools designed to combat opioid overdoses. These kits contain naloxone, a fast-acting medication that temporarily reverses the effects of opioids, allowing individuals who have overdosed to breathe again and regain consciousness. Available in two forms — nasal spray and injectable. The nasal spray is administered directly into the nostril, while the injectable form is administered into a muscle (such as the thigh or upper arm) using a syringe. Naloxone acts by displacing opioids from their receptors in the brain, effectively reversing the respiratory depression caused by an overdose. It can restore normal breathing within 2 to 5 minutes after administration. However, its effects last only 20 to 90 minutes, which means that medical assistance should always be sought immediately after its use, as the individual may relapse into an overdose once naloxone wears off.

The film is aiming for that high-octane, adrenaline-fueled feel from the moment Frank first rescues Ava, all the way through to the end. But it struggles to maintain that level of excitement and intensity the whole way through. There are times when it almost feels like they’ve given the characters too much room to breathe. Like that scene where Ava and Frank start sharing their backstories – it’s nice that we get a bit of character development, but if they’re in the middle of this life-or-death situation, do we really need to hear them discussing stuff that ultimately doesn’t matter if they don’t make it out alive? This scene reveals that Frank will make it out and attend his daughter’s recital, as Ava suggests.

The screenplay also raises several unconvincing points, leaving me unsure whether these flaws were intended or simply indicative of lazy writing. For instance, why would Frank carry around the stolen phone from a supposed corrupt cop without considering that they could easily trace and pinpoint his location?

THE SILENT HOUR was theatrically released in the United States on 11 October 2024.