America has really done John Woo no favors in regards to his film legacy. And despite kind of hitting some gems in the 1990’s, director Woo has accomplished so much more in his heydays. “Silent Night” is proof positive that he needs a renaissance, as it’s about as basic and disappointing an action movie that you can get. I was cautiously optimistic about “Silent Night” as the premise seemed so interesting. An action movie with no dialogue based around a revenge plot akin “John Wick” seemed like a good time. Throwing in Joel Kinnaman was just the icing on the cake.
On Christmas Eve, Brian Godlock witnesses the death of his young son when the boy gets caught in crossfire between warring gangs. Recovering from a neck wound that cost him his voice, he soon embarks on a bloody and grueling quest to punish those responsible.
The biggest gimmick of “Silent Night” becomes its true downfall. The lack of dialogue in the movie actually hinders the entire narrative that unfolds, transforming “Silent Night” in to a dull, tedious chore that feels incomplete. The whole use of dialogue wouldn’t have elevated “Silent Night” from mediocre, but it would have allowed John Woo to run with the strengths of its stars Kinnaman and Catalina Sandino Moreno. Woo does pull off a nifty task by casting Sandino Moreno in the supporting role as the wife who watches her husband John descend in to darkness and grief. Sandino Moreno is a brilliant actress, and she can act very well with the use of her eyes and facial quirks.
“Silent Night” relies too much on its tepid gimmick, and when it steps back from said gimmick, it watches like yet another boilerplate revenge thriller. We’ve seen so many of these kinds of revenge rampage shoot ‘em ups in the last ten years, that Woo not only does nothing new with it, but leans in to the familiarity of the sub-genre to his detriment. The use of actual dialogue would have worked wonders to help punctuate the sense of grief and misery these characters are experiencing, as well as add dimension. The script and lackthereof almost seems to work against the intention of the film at every turn. With Drama, or Horror you don’t exactly need a lot of dialogue as that can break tension or emotions.
But with action cinema, dialogue helps so much more than it hurts, when used wisely. Besides, there are at least fifteen other movies of this ilk out there that have tackled almost the exact same story, taken the same course of events, and have likely offered up a better experience. There’s none of Woo’s usual wit, charm, or sense of nihilism, none of his deeply seated camp that have made films like “Hard Boiled” so riveting. Woo is a master of action filmmaking, and it’s so sad he was saddled up with such a misguided, dull mess of an action movie.