Image courtesy of IMDb
Hello, everyone. While I had planned to get this up before Christmas, I ultimately was not able to.
Even so, I was still very much eager to do this one, for several reasons.
The first was that it was the first Hollywood movie for prominent action director John Woo in almost 20 years (the 20 year mark came on Christmas Day, as that’s when his last Hollywood movie, Paycheck, came out).
The second was that it had a lot of the stunt team from John Wick: Chapter 4 working on it, who mainly joined because they wanted to work with him.
The third was actually the part that intrigued me the most about it, and it was that it would have no spoken dialogue in it (you’d hear radio signals and things like that, but that’s really it). When I first heard that, I thought that while it did intrigue me, at the same time, I thought this could either make or break the movie. Judging by how it ultimately turned out, it did not work out for a lot of people.
However, the fact that it was set around Christmas was a bonus for me.
Santa gave us a Violent Night, and now it’s time for a Silent Night.
The story starts in 2021, and we follow electrician Brian Godlock (Joel Kinnaman) as he lives a peaceful life in Texas with his wife Saya and son Taylor. However, on Christmas Eve, a gang war has erupted, they’re caught in the crossfire of a drive-by, and Taylor is killed. Brian immediately tries to go after them, but this results in a gang leader shooting him in the neck and leaving him to die.
While he does survive, his vocal cords are damaged, and though Saya tries to support him, Brian’s only focus is avenging their son.
Brian’s ultimate goal: Train himself to fight so he can go after the gang members responsible on Christmas Eve the following year.
What Worked: Though there are hardly any big names in this, there are at least a couple you might recognize.
As mentioned earlier, Joel Kinnaman is the lead here, and I appreciated that he wasn’t playing a character with a position of authority again in this. In the RoboCop remake (which I actually find pretty underrated, by the way) he was a cop, and in the Suicide Squad films, he led the titular teams.
Here, he’s just a normal guy that gets caught in a bad situation, and I like that.
The other somewhat recognizable name here is Scott Mescudi, better known as Kid Cudi. Though you may know him more for his music (particularly his debut single “Day ’n’ Nite”*), he has also had some film roles in recent years, like Need for Speed and Bill & Ted Face the Music (where he played himself), and I really liked him in both.
Here, he plays Detective Dennis Vassel, who wants to help in the murder case, but Brian ultimately chooses to do things his own way.
While Harold Torres does a great job as the villain, Playa, there is one other name worth noting, and that is Catalina Sandino Moreno, who plays Saya. Between her and Brian, you feel vulnerability the most with her, because she understands her husband’s motivation, and she feels more concerned for him as a person, and she conveys that really well.
Though she’s not as big a name as Kinnaman or Cudi, she could certainly make a name for herself given her next project also has a John Wick connection, albeit a more direct one. She’s among the cast of the upcoming spinoff, Ballerina, and of course I’m looking forward to that.
The biggest name of everyone involved, however, is John Woo himself.
While he may not be as prominent now, he was in the 90s and the early 2000s, so he did make a name for himself by the time he did Paycheck.
He’s made quite a few Hollywood movies you might at least be familiar with, namely Face/Off and of course Mission: Impossible 2 (the weakest of the series, but I don’t think that’s his fault so much as I think it’s the script, but I digress).
In regards to the lack of spoken dialogue, in a way, it’s following the biggest rule of storytelling (“Show, Don’t Tell”) in the literal sense.
The music is used to help tell the story instead, and the action sequences shown to the audience help represent it.
The score, courtesy of Marco Beltrami, is pretty good, as while it’s not remarkable, it is very effective in the action sequences and the more dramatic moments.
Speaking of which, the action sequences are a lot of fun, and you can tell they’re very much inspired by the John Wick films, even if they’re not quite as brutal as those can get.
It also shows in the editing from Zach Staenberg, who is no stranger to working with Keanu Reeves, either, as he also edited one of my favorite movies, The Matrix, and in fact edited all of the first three films.
One more thing worth noting: About halfway through, I realized what this felt more like to me, but I’ll get to that at the end.
What Didn’t Work: The biggest issue comes with the big selling point of the movie: The fact that there is no spoken dialogue.
While I appreciate wanting to have it be distinct from the other films in the style of John Wick, like Atomic Blonde, Extraction, Nobody, and even Bullet Train, there is a huge consequence that comes with the execution here.
It ends up being somewhat mixed. There are times where it does work (like in a scene early on where Vassel visits Brian in the hospital, and leaves his card; I did like it in scenes like that), and then there are times where it doesn’t (like in a scene where a nurse is speaking to Saya; in fact, you can very clearly see their mouths are moving).
It could’ve worked better if there was dialogue here and there. You can have silence, sure, but in the scenes where it worked.
If it was only Brian who didn’t speak, I would’ve been fine with that. At least he had a reason for not speaking, and that’s because he couldn’t, which makes sense.
Other than that, it could’ve benefited from having at least some dialogue throughout the movie.
Overall: Though it’s pretty much come and gone from theaters now, I would say give Silent Night a chance. I should forewarn you: Do not expect an all-out action movie like you might get from John Woo’s previous films.
There’s a little more to it than just action. Sure, you get plenty of it, and it is very satisfying to watch, but here’s how I ultimately felt it’s best viewed as, and therefore what I feel is the best way to look at it.
If you view it as a Christmas revenge film, it’s more effective in that sense.
Though the cast do fine without dialogue, they could’ve stood out more with at least a little bit, because you can only take a novelty so far before it starts wearing thin on the audience. If you’re aiming to go all the way, you have to really know what you’re doing with it.
If you do view it as an action movie, however, and you go into it with that forewarning having been provided, it’s entertaining enough, particularly for a Friday night viewing.
It also does work as a Christmas movie, but it doesn’t quite reach the level of Violent Night or of course Die Hard. It might’ve had those issues been worked out.
I can definitely say two things: 1: If you want to see the phrase “Actions speak louder than words” on display, this is your movie, and 2: While some may not agree, for me, this is a satisfying enough comeback for John Woo to American audiences, and I hope we get to see more from him again.
Next Time: Universal makes going in the water frightening again.
In the meantime:
Entertainment had it rough this year
But we always look forward to more
So I hope to see everyone back here
In 2024.
*Which you may remember from either Watch Dogs or more likely the Moon Knight trailer.