Movie "The Quiet" and Psychosomatic Deafness

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carrigantm9636

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OK, so has anyone seen the movie "The Quiet"? It's a half-lame psychological thriller/drama. Just a teen drama, really, with some intrigue and perversion thrown in for good measure.

But one of the characters was listed on the description as being deaf. She signs, doesn't speak except for one line word when she thinks she's alone, but her adopted-sister hears her. The girl plays piano, only went deaf after her mother's sudden death at age 7, her father was deaf, and she narrates the movie. The movie has a focus on secrets, but it really just made me wonder about some things.

Is the girl really deaf, if she believes it to be so? Is it psychological/ psychosomatic deafness? This isn't the first time I'd heard of someone "losing" a sense after a catastrophic event (the first time was The Who's album "Tommy", which my friend played at top volume for me one time years ago, before my HAs, so i got the "whole experience" lol). Is it just a really interesting plot point, or does it happen more than one thinks?

Does anyone know anything else about it? Is it true deafness? An what about if people "regain" their hearing or "choose" to hear again?

Anybody got thoughts? Anecdotes? I'm off to do a google search, just thought I'd let yall in on my wonderings!
 
I haven't seen the movie, but psychosomatic deafness, blindness, and various other physical symptoms is fairly common. This is also known by the professionals as conversion disorder, and the loss of function usually has something to do with the trauma experienced. For instance, a young child witnessing the murder of a parent might develop conversion disorder in the form of blindness. A young child that doesn't see, but can hear from their bedroom, frequent episodes of domestic violence could develop conversion disorder in the form of deafness. A woman who has experienced violent sexual attacks from a spouse might develop paraplegia.
 
I watched the movie but couldn't get through it all the way; I stopped watching because the (hearing) actress annoyed me.
 
"The Quiet"

carrigantm9636 said:
OK, so has anyone seen the movie "The Quiet"? It's a half-lame psychological thriller/drama. Just a teen drama, really, with some intrigue and perversion thrown in for good measure.

But one of the characters was listed on the description as being deaf. She signs, doesn't speak except for one line word when she thinks she's alone, but her adopted-sister hears her. The girl plays piano, only went deaf after her mother's sudden death at age 7, her father was deaf, and she narrates the movie. The movie has a focus on secrets, but it really just made me wonder about some things.

Is the girl really deaf, if she believes it to be so? Is it psychological/ psychosomatic deafness? This isn't the first time I'd heard of someone "losing" a sense after a catastrophic event (the first time was The Who's album "Tommy", which my friend played at top volume for me one time years ago, before my HAs, so i got the "whole experience" lol). Is it just a really interesting plot point, or does it happen more than one thinks?

Does anyone know anything else about it? Is it true deafness? An what about if people "regain" their hearing or "choose" to hear again?

Anybody got thoughts? Anecdotes? I'm off to do a google search, just thought I'd let yall in on my wonderings!
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I've seen that movie twice and found it interesting. I understood it better the second time round. In that case for the charactor, she went deaf at 7 because her father um kinda make it that way. The father made it a secret between the two of them that she could still hear. Recall that moment when the father got into an accident even though he had looked both ways while the girl went to the bathroom? She said something like that ONLY if she was with him, he would be alive. She would have heard the truck coming and stopped him. All along, she could hear, could listen to conversations, just dang good at pretending to be deaf. Lucky for her, she knew sign language because of her father who was deaf. There was also another movie similiar to "loss of hearing" of a boy who was on a bus while his mother went off the bus shortly to buy something, but never came back on because the mother was murdered. The boy stayed in the bus til the bus came at the end of the line in a city... was shown out of the bus. He played deaf into adulthood, but could fix things when they needed him. Then there was a moment when he was fixing something at the court house, I think, and overheard two bad men talking. The "deaf" man had to tesifty and to everybody's shock he spoke in a cracked voice, for he had not used it in years. ( I couldn't recall the moive title, I apologize)

I, personally, don't find it too annoying when hearing people pretends to be deaf, but I would ENCOURAGE more Deaf people to be involved in the screen. Hope this helps. :)

(If anybody go to the end of the moive, that "deaf" girl didn't just speak one word when she thought she was alone. ;) )
 
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I saw the movie awhile ago. I picked it up because I enjoy practicing my receptive skills.
The girl (Dot, I believe was her name?) stops talking and engages in the silent world after she blames herself for her father's accident. He walked out in front of a truck and didn't hear it approaching.
The other underlying theme is that of incest and the dysfunction that goes on within "seemingly normal" families.
The "thriller" is that Dot must decide what to do when her cousin confides in her that she is going to murder her father (she knows Dot can hear, but is testing to see whether she will stop her).
It was by far a strange movie, but for a psych major, very intriguing.
 
OpheliaSpeaks said:
I saw the movie awhile ago. I picked it up because I enjoy practicing my receptive skills.
The girl (Dot, I believe was her name?) stops talking and engages in the silent world after she blames herself for her father's accident. He walked out in front of a truck and didn't hear it approaching.
The other underlying theme is that of incest and the dysfunction that goes on within "seemingly normal" families.
The "thriller" is that Dot must decide what to do when her cousin confides in her that she is going to murder her father (she knows Dot can hear, but is testing to see whether she will stop her).
It was by far a strange movie, but for a psych major, very intriguing.
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If I may say, Dot had been "deaf" since the age of 7, not just after her father's accident... if I recall correctly, that is :)
 
sleepytaz said:
I, personally, don't find it too annoying when hearing people pretends to be deaf, but I would ENCOURAGE more Deaf people to be involved in the screen. Hope this helps. :)
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The reason she annoyed me was because she had no facial expression whatsoever and her acting just seemed very stagey to me. Mostly she just stared at things and there was no indication of any thinking taking place, just a dull stare.

Now it's an interesting question of whether a deaf or hearing actress should have played the part. Normally it really bugs me when hearing actors play deaf characters. But in this case the character was actually hearing, so that shouldn't matter, right? Except that since she had functioned as a deaf person for so long, she would behave more like someone brought up as either a CODA or d/Deaf of d/Deaf. And I really don't know what it is but it's always obvious when someone playing a Deaf person or even a CODA doesn't have any experience with ASL or Deaf culture. So maybe the role should have been played by a deaf actress or a native/fluent signing hearing person (even though there wasn't much signing).

:dunno:
 
Well it wouldn't makes any senses if deaf actor play a hearing character, sure CODA'll be better but I don't think there's any CODA actor, and also with someone with little bit of recognization will makes movie more popular and makes more money off it instead of pluck random CODA out of nowhere to play the character and makes no money off it so.
Therefore, get semi-famous hearing actress for that movie, she did not bad work at signing tho, usually someone did horrible job or faking it but she did sign right like turkey sandwich so....
 
SkullChick said:
Well it wouldn't makes any senses if deaf actor play a hearing character
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Normally, no, but this is a unique movie. The character has basically been deaf since the age of 7, psychologically if not physically. Since I didn't watch the whole thing, admittedly I don't know if there were any scenes that would have required a hearing actress. If not, it's possible for a deaf actress to play this part if the character is essentially deaf. Or maybe Deaf is what I mean, I don't know.
 
Interpretrator said:
Normally, no, but this is a unique movie. The character has basically been deaf since the age of 7, psychologically if not physically. Since I didn't watch the whole thing, admittedly I don't know if there were any scenes that would have required a hearing actress. If not, it's possible for a deaf actress to play this part if the character is essentially deaf. Or maybe Deaf is what I mean, I don't know.
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alright at the end of movie dot finally cracked and shout when killing the father of blonde girl and then talking the whole time till credit start rolling so.
that why i said doesnt makes senses if deaf play that character because of their deaf accent if they can speak so coda or real hearing actor will makes more senses.
 
Ah, I see.

Well then it isn't a deaf/hearing thing with that actress, she was just bad. :giggle:
 
Interpretrator said:
The reason she annoyed me was because she had no facial expression whatsoever and her acting just seemed very stagey to me. Mostly she just stared at things and there was no indication of any thinking taking place, just a dull stare.

Now it's an interesting question of whether a deaf or hearing actress should have played the part. Normally it really bugs me when hearing actors play deaf characters. But in this case the character was actually hearing, so that shouldn't matter, right? Except that since she had functioned as a deaf person for so long, she would behave more like someone brought up as either a CODA or d/Deaf of d/Deaf. And I really don't know what it is but it's always obvious when someone playing a Deaf person or even a CODA doesn't have any experience with ASL or Deaf culture. So maybe the role should have been played by a deaf actress or a native/fluent signing hearing person (even though there wasn't much signing).

:dunno:
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You're right about facial expressions that needed to be shown while using ASL and such. Come to think of it, Dot's father was Deaf, she ought to have gotten some sort of CODA's behaivor and have deaf way. But of course, the producers who made that movie aren't very aware of Deaf culture. :(

Soo... yea....
 
maybe you are just being overly critical. i dont know how people like that enjoy ANY movie. Like the fan boi's who criticize every comic book movie that comes out, or of any genre that has a following, that rip every single movie to shred.

why can't people just sit back and enjoy the story for what it was, and not give a flip wether the lady was deaf or hearing, considering the woman in the story apparently was hearing to begin with?

regarding facial expression, i haven't seen the movie, so i can't comment specifically, but if she was THAT traumatized by the incident, i dont imagine she would be too animated in her signing.

i dunno, i don't mean to criticize other peoples enjoyment of movies, but i like to just sit back, and enjoy the story. not focus on the actors, or the studios, or the director or any other non-sense. Im there for the story, and i usually come away enjoying the expierence, there's only a few movies i didn't enjoy.
 
I saw the movie when it first came out on DVD. I can't really say it's a good movie because it isn't. The dialogue was pretty bad, so was the acting. You can see why this movie headed straight to DVD rather than the theatres.

It's quite a mediocre movie. I would give this movie a C-.
 
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