‘Silent Night’ – Review
All-star action filmmaker John Woo returns to cinemas and is ready to shift things up a notch with Silent Night, a Christmas-inspired action fest that is unlike any action movie you’ve ever seen before.
On Christmas Eve, ordinary man Brian Godlock (Joel Kinnaman) witnesses the death of his young son when the boy gets caught in crossfire between warring gangs. Recovering from a wound that cost him his voice, he soon embarks on a bloody and grueling quest to punish those responsible.
Regarding action cinema filmmakers, John Woo stands as one of the all-time greats to ever revolutionize the genre. While Chad Stahelski might be the torch carrier now, John Woo burst into cinemas with his all-action, violent extravaganza of craziness and the development of the ‘heroic bloodshed’ genre with works such as A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Hardboiled, Broken Arrow and Face/Off. Now, the talented filmmaker returns to the action genre with the pulse-pounding Silent Night. He raises the stakes up a notch, as this film is a fully kinetic experience delivered through action, emotion, and ambient music, and it is completely devoid of a single word of dialogue. What this creates is a stylized, almost art-house action picture, and it makes a very creative and out-of-the-box viewing experience.
Stepping into the action of Silent Night is noted Hollywood leading man Joel Kinnaman, and the Swedish star relished the opportunity to make things interesting next to Woo. Kinnaman is no stranger to the action genre with films such as Suicide Squad and Robocop to his name, but Silent Night allows him to dig deep into his acting craft, and what we see is a display of pure performance. Robbed off his ability to speak through a heinous crime and gripped by the need for revenge, Kinnaman delivers a performance that is delivered through pure expression and gesture, and it’s a role that keeps things everything. His performance as the film’s protagonist makes for a hell of a journey, and his burning desire for revenge against a corrupt system sees him transform into ‘an angel of death’ who is ready to deliver plenty of hardboiled justice to all those who’ve been bad at Christmas time.
In terms of sheer ultra-violence, well, Woo keeps it at a steady delivery, and the audience will watch with excitement as Kinnaman’s Brian transforms from an ordinary man to a John Wick-infused badass! And then the fireworks start. Whether he’s smashing in the bad guy’s faces, going full auto with an array of very big guns, or slamming down on the accelerator in a custom-built Ford Mustang and tearing up the streets, there’s enough action beats that will spike the adrenaline of any fan of the genre. The actions are wild, the gunplays are insane, and plenty of gore is spent by the time the credits begin to roll.
Silent Night is an incredibly different and distinct cinematic experience, and its action cinemas as art thanks to the eye of John Woo and the performance of Kinnaman. It definitely makes for a different cinematic experience, and audiences who are wanting something unexpected will find it with this one.
