TO KILL A WOLF Review: Watch Out for the Quiet Ones

Some films are quiet because they have nothing to say. Other films are quiet because they wait for their characters to tell their story.

To Kill a Wolf
The film is now playing in New York City. It opens tomorrow in Los Angeles and will expand to other cities in the coming weeks. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.

A man discovers a young woman, unconscious, in the woods near his large wooden house. Who is the man? Why is the young woman lying unconscious?

By this early point in the film, the middle-aged man, identified on-screen simply as "The Woodsman," has been spending his days searching with a metal detector for traps, and setting them off. He appears to enjoy his solitary existence, visiting a nearby town for needed supplies, and fiddling with his analog sound system, record player and all.

After he brings the young woman home, he keeps a respectful distance from her, settling her into his upstairs bedroom, while he stays downstairs. He shares his meals and does not pry into her business, though he learns that she is 17 years old.

To Kill a Wolf is a quiet film, because it's waiting for its characters to get good and ready to tell their story. It doesn't rush them. Like The Woodsman, it doesn't pry into anyone else's affairs. Like a river stream, however, it flows steadily forward, never allowing its deliberate pace to impede its momentum. Instead, it keeps moving with confidence.

Written and directed by Kelsey Taylor in her feature debut, a crackling atmosphere is established from the first frames of the film, thanks to Adam Lee's expert cinematography and Dawson Taylor's precise editing. All the behind-the-camera talent creates an atmosphere that always feels ripe with mystery and suspense.

In front of the camera, Ivan Martin, as The Woodsman, and Maddison Brown, as the young woman, portray their unnamed characters with graceful subtlety. Their emotional pain and internal turmoil is written on their faces; they can't or won't make their feelings leap from their lips, without time for measured reflection, and a deep consideration of their circumstances, as well as other characters who surround them.

Quietly affecting and deeply moving, To Kill a Wolf avoids shouting and yelling. The characters would rather use a rifle than a machine gun. They want everything they say to land as is intended. The film is all the more powerful because of that restraint.

Of course, sometimes you can't be quiet anymore. Sometimes, the time for restraint has passed. Then you better watch out, because everything inside will come pouring out in a furious fusillade of volatile emotion. Even from the quiet ones.