TL;DR – I respect this film for trying something new, even if they don’t actually pull it off.

Silent Night Review –

There are some directors that you have to watch when you hear they are attached to a project, and if you are a fan of action, then you know that John Woo is one to get yourself into a cinema. Add to this is a hook that I have not seen played like this before, and I was intrigued, well, at least I was when I walked in.  

So to set the scene, we open with a man running, hands covered in blood, as tires screech and bullets fly. Two cars are in battle as bullets fly around, and the man is chasing them down. You think he might be succeeding as he flings a metal bar into the window, crashing the car. That is until Playa (Harold Torres) gets out of the crashed car and shoots Brian (Joel Kinnaman) right in the neck. Brian can speak, but that is only the start of his trauma, and he decides that he has to do something about this.

The hook that Silent Night has is that there is no dialogue spoken in the film, bar the odd phrase over the radio, police or otherwise. This is not the first film to use silence as a part of the narrative, i.e. A Quiet Place. But while there is a narrative reason behind that for AQP, there isn’t here for anyone other than Brian, but the construction of the film makes it so. This is an interesting choice, and it helps reinforce Brian’s new world.

However, the construction of this film undermines this chief conceit by turning the monumental Act 2 into one long montage training sequence. Yes, we needed to know how a regular dude got to the point where he takes down a cartel. However, it is so drawn out that it sucks the flow and momentum of the film. Because of this, when the action finally picks up in the third act, you have unfortunately checked out of the narrative by then.

But on the point of the action, you can see how much work has gone into the opening and closing movements. The whole stunt team is working their buts off. There are some hard falls here and there is only so much pads can do. My big problem with the action is that it comes so late in the game that you have checked out of the film. Also, while it is unfair, but I was just reminded of John Wick 4 the entire time.

In the end, do we recommend Silent Night? Unfortunately, not. I respect that they are taking a big chance here, and that is interesting. It just never comes together, which is a shame. Add to that, I am not sure the Christmas theme did anything. If you like Silent Night, we would recommend to you Polite Society.   

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Silent Night
Directed by – John Woo
Written by – Robert Archer Lynn
Music by – Marco Beltrami
Cinematography by – Sharone Meir
Edited by – Zach Staenberg
Production/Distribution Companies – Thunder Road Films, Capstone Studios, A Better Tomorrow Films, Lionsgate & Rialto Films
Starring – Joel Kinnaman, Kid Cudi, Harold Torres & Catalina Sandino Moreno with Yoko Hamamura, Anthony Giulietti, John Pollack & Angeles Woo
Rating – Australia: MA15+; Canada: 14A; Germany: 18; New Zealand: R; United Kingdom: na; United States: R