A crush of displaced people, determined to weather Cincinnati’s coldest night of the year indoors, put the downtown library in a lockdown situation. Another thriller entirely situated among the stacks? Alas, Quiet Please, Murder this is not. First off, just enough of the film takes place outside the repository so as to set in motion Det. Alec Baldwin’s search for an unhoused, opioid-addicted son. (Blindfold Helen Keller in another auditorium and she’ll still see where this subplot’s going.) Everything that writer/director/star Emilio Estevez throws our way during the first 30 minutes (nude lunatic, favorite pizza toppings, lumbering Steinbeck references, etc.) will strike back in one pronounced form or another. Estevez gets strong support from his two female leads (Jena Malone and Taylor Schilling), while the rest of the cast — particularly those pretending to be homeless — never rises above caricature. The "Full Monty" appropriation that brings down the curtain was the last of many final nails pounded into this well-intentioned coffin. (2019) — Scott Marks
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