Could you survive in a world of silence? That’s the question at the center of the Quiet Place franchise, which imagines a world where aliens attracted to sound take over the world. That’s still an essential element of A Quiet Place: Day One, a prequel and the latest entry in the franchise. But this time around, the most important relationship in the film isn’t between family members trying to survive without speaking—it’s between a woman and her cat.

And that cat, with all due respect to the fantastic Oscar-winning Lupita Nyong’o at the center of the film, is the real star of the movie.

That’s a perfect task for director Michael Sarnoski, who understands the bond between animals and man better than most. His terrific debut, Pig, followed a man (Nicolas Cage) on a mission to get his kidnapped truffle pig back. In Day One, Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) has late-stage cancer and lives in a hospice with her therapy cat Frodo (played by cats Nico and Schnitzel)

Being a therapy cat might sound like a joke—I’ve had cats my whole life and while they can be life-changing, being aloof is a consistent quality—but Frodo isn’t like most cats. He’s completely devoted to Sam and walks around the hospice she lives in on a leash. He nuzzles in her lap, purring lovingly with her by his side.

I should answer the most pressing question first: Yes, Frodo is staggeringly........

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