The Silence **½ (NR) In July, 1986, a girl is raped and murdered in a seemingly idyllic German village. All that’s left at the scene is her bicycle. The killer is never caught. Exactly 23 years later, another girl vanishes from the same spot, in precisely the same way, creating a frenzy of angst and activity among the local police, the first victim’s mother, the retired cop who never got over his failure on the first, the parents of the second girl, and one guy who knows what happened before, and fears the same pervert may have done it again.
This thriller is quite admirably written. We’re spared having to see most of the brutality, while delving deeply into a wide array of emotional perspectives and personal issues among the principals. Nothing is formulaic about the characters or the plot. Those accustomed to our higher-octane domestic TV and movie crime fare will find the relative subtlety of this one either bland, or a refreshingly realistic and thoughtful treatment of a horrible situation, focusing on inner tensions of their hearts and minds, rather than the visceral thrills of flying bullets and chases. (3/29/13)