With a script that calls for much crying and lamenting, pic could have easily descended into turgid meller territory were it not for the ensemble's nuanced perfs.

| Jul 17, 2020

Although it may not fire on all cylinders, "The Silence" offers much to admire.

| Jul 17, 2020

The atmosphere - weirdly chilling in the high summer of southern Germany - is oppressive. It's the worst of cliches ... but I was on the edge of my seat until the very last.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 17, 2020

Twisted, sad and undeniably disturbing, "The Silence" is a study in the sick ways of men.

| Original Score: B | Oct 31, 2013

This is film noir at its noirest.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 29, 2013

A story of obsession, of the permanence of loss, of how deeds of the past haunt us, closing over our heads like water. It leaves you shivering, yet thrilled; waiting anxiously for this talented new filmmaker's next work.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 28, 2013

Its measured pacing whispers art while its lurid subject matter screams commerce.

| Mar 28, 2013

The most rewarding element in the picture is the performance of the first girl's mother by Katrin Sass, who gives us quietly and darkly what it is like to live with the memory of your child's murder.

| Mar 27, 2013

"The Silence" is a victim of over-plotting, clunky narrative, gratuitous stylization, and too many points of view.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 21, 2013

Nicely paced but rotely characterized.

| Mar 14, 2013

With echoes of "The Vanishing" and "Memories of Murder," Baran bo Odar's dread-filled "The Silence" is a character-based thriller that focuses more on the people wrapped up in its web of perversion and murder than the crimes themselves.

| Original Score: 4.0/5.0 | Mar 14, 2013

The mysteries here are larger, deeper, more ineffable than the purely practical concerns of crime-solving: motive, means and opportunity.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 14, 2013

These are our modern tearjerkers, embellished with sexual violence to maintain the audience's sense of its own sophistication. Include me out.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 8, 2013

The Silence, an assured first feature from Swiss-born director Baran Bo Odar, has more on its mind than most crime thrillers.

| Mar 7, 2013

"The Silence" is an exemplary German-language thriller, a complex and disturbing examination of guilt, violence and psychological torment that chills us to the core not once but two times over.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 7, 2013

[Mr. Odar uses] graceful wide-screen compositions and haunting sound design to create a compelling mood of menace, anxiety and sorrow.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 7, 2013

Swiss-born director Baran bo Odar's second feature film is a finely crafted psychological drama that uses a brutal crime to delve into the depths of human misery.

| Mar 7, 2013

What had seemed like a lackluster ensemble piece turns out to be an exercise in empathy ...

| Original Score: B- | Mar 7, 2013

"The Silence" is more like an intriguing work of misdirection than a great crime film, but it has a dreamlike and disturbing undertow you won't soon forget, and Odar is unquestionably a director to watch.

| Mar 6, 2013

The Silence speaks volumes.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 5, 2013