“It’s just that I don’t want to talk about it.”
Not talking is at the core of Leonardo Van Dijl’s Julie Keeps Quiet. Of course, everyone has things they don’t want to talk about. Should we have to talk about things?
Julie (Tessa Van den Broeck) is an aspiring teen tennis player. She’s good enough to get an invitation to try out for the Belgian Tennis Federation. But not long before that tryout, her coach, Jeremy, is suspended from the academy where she trains because of a suicide by one of his other players.
The academy hires outside people for the players to talk to about what has happened. Julie opts not to discuss Jeremy, even though there are many people who encourage her to talk. Her focus is all on tennis. She spends all her time, outside of school (where her grades have begun to drop), training. Although he’s suspended, Julie still talks to Jeremy, who discourages her from listening to the new coach. A telling line from one of their phone conversations is when he says, “When you told me to stop, I stopped, didn’t I?”
Why doesn’t Julie want to talk? Is it because she wants to protect Jeremy? Is it because of some pain he has caused? Is it embarrassment that people suspect them of a relationship? Since she doesn’t talk, we really don’t know.
Instead, we see subtle changes in Julie as time progresses. While at the start of the story she seems a bit more withdrawn (is it this crisis or just concerns about tennis?), she slowly begins to reintegrate with school and peers at the tennis academy. She begins to trust her new coach. She becomes more confident. We may read this as signs that she is healing from whatever trauma there was. It remains our conjecture, though, since she doesn’t say.
Can we judge her silence? I don’t think so. The fact that there are so many factors that are involved. She is making a conscious effort to remain silent. For viewers, this might be frustrating in that we want our questions resolved. That is probably true for Julie’s parents and the authorities involved in the investigation. But speaking or not is up to Julie.
It gives us a chance to reflect on our own choices to remain silent. The wrongs that we do not reveal. The pains that we do not expose. The anger that we do not express. Even the love we do not reveal. What are the things in our lives that remain unspoken? Who is to judge them?
Julie Keeps Quiet is in limited release.
Photos courtesy of Film Movement.
