Director: John Woo
Writer: Robert Archer Lynn
Stars: Joel Kinnaman, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Scott Mescudi
Synopsis: A grieving father enacts his long-awaited revenge against a ruthless gang on Christmas Eve.
A silent film has a certain novelty in the digital era. It’s like a black and white aesthetic or shooting on film instead of digital. The choice is bold especially in the action genre in which the characters are often quipping, growling, or berating between bursts of gunfire. Silent Night isn’t completely devoid of dialogue though; any dialogue that is exposition is spoken in voice over. Any shouting during battle is done by characters not seen to be speaking on screen, as well. There are a few short, muffled, inconsequential lines spoken by main characters, but that’s it. It’s too bad this intriguing conceit is wrapped up in a massive turkey.
The lack of dialogue is a gimmick that gets old very soon and completely destroys any of the realism the filmmakers wish to have with their everyman hero. In fact, it creates an incredibly depressing film. With no dialogue to distract from the plot, we’re forced to sit in the silence of this man’s grief and the reminder that children can die. All we know of the main character is his one motivation in life and it’s not enough to build a movie on.
The conceit is even worse when the training montage, which should have been a few minutes with a rocking song before the mayhem, is a very long chunk of the film. It’s drawn out and crushingly boring. There’s a reason main characters in these revenge films are former military, cops, or assassins, because you can skip them being bad at shooting a gun and driving a car in an aggressive way. This everyman is so painfully inept at what he wants to accomplish. It’s really awful watching someone who hasn’t been in a real fight with another human try and fight someone. Bad fights by people who don’t understand how to fight only belong in comedies. In an action movie it’s just pitiable and not in the way to get an audience on your side.
The whole film has a student thesis feel. It plays like someone who watched a lot of action films thought they could do it. Silent Night is entirely derivative of films from the ’80s and ’90s heyday of the action film. Even the way time is passed in the film is hackneyed and eye-rolling. Based on writer Robert Archer Lynn’s previous credits of micro budget indies, that’s not too much of a stretch. Especially since this is his first produced screenplay in sixteen years and probably spent that time stewing in an executive’s slush pile with only a quick rewrite to make it more relevant now.
A lot of these revenge films, especially the modern variety have something to say. Silent Night feels like it’s just echoing political talking points about urban blight. It’s set in a Texas city that is overrun by Latino drug gangs. The police are powerless, the people are in fear, and the federal government does nothing. It’s very much using talking points of several prominent fear mongers to indicate that you could do what the police cannot and in one scene of complicity between Brian (Joel Kinnaman) and Det. Vassell (Scott Mescudi) what they secretly want you to do because their hands are tied by the law.
You have to wonder what made action movie legend John Woo want to attach his name to this lame duck of a movie. It’s obvious that Woo is trying to make a film his way. He and cinematographer Sharone Meir pull off some dynamic moves and tracking shots, but you can’t polish something so ridiculous. It’s so ridiculous that it’s not even a fun bad movie. At one point, the reflection of Brian’s memories are projected onto a Christmas bauble and the overwrought music is so maudlin that the silliness is lost in the uncomfortableness of the situation. Silent Night runs head first into every cliché possible, but skips out on Woo’s own clichés which would have at least made the movie interesting to watch.
There is typically something positive to say about any film, but Silent Night isn’t worth the digital space it takes up. It’s hard to say that an action movie where people are gruesomely killed is supposed to be fun, but the fantasy is supposed to be escapist at least and not so moodily depressing. This is just dour melancholy for an hour and forty-five minutes. Even Lars Von Trier wouldn’t make an action movie this morose. Avoid this one at all costs.
