Rating: **
Review Date: 2/12/24
Director: John Woo
Cast: Joel Kinnaman, cameo by Angeles Woo
Brian Godlock's (Joel Kinnaman) six-year old son is killed by a stray bullet on Christmas Eve. Brian also takes a bullet in the throat, which miraculously doesn't kill him, but leaves him without a voice. Unable to process his grief and loss, Brian resorts to alcohol and then becomes obsessed with revenge.
John Woo's first American film in twenty years is a letdown, despite his best intentions. The film's biggest gimmick is that it has no dialog, which actually serves the story quite well. Contemporary movies already have too much dialog to begin with, and adding dialog to "Silent Night" would have made it even more ridiculous and melodramatic than it already is. To be honest, I barely noticed the lack of dialog, which is a testament to Woo's directing skill and Joel Kinnaman's excellent performance. The silence forces the actors to emote through their eyes and body language alone, which Woo lovingly captures with long, contemplative shots. In fact, some of his shots linger on to the point of awkward discomfort, which leads to pacing problems. And that's where the film stumbles the most.
The film is a lean and simple revenge tale, but the first hour focuses entirely on a broken and inconsolable Brian moping around, destroying his marriage, plotting revenge, spying on the enemy, and training for combat. It's a long and slow burn, and while I understand where John Woo is coming from, his brand of meditative melancholy and melodrama is no longer innovative and in fashion. I found the pacing and emotional buildup tedious and tiresome, and the overwhelming air of despair and unpleasantness made it difficult to watch.
Ultimately, the film plays out like a poor man's "John Wick" (2014), except that Brian isn't some superhuman killing machine. He's just a regular guy (albeit with seemingly infinite resources) who trains himself to exact vigilante justice. He knows it's not right, but psychologically and emotionally he has no other choice. He also has no experience and isn't a particularly good fighter, which gives Woo ample opportunities to explore Brian's vulnerabilities and the sheer hopelessness of his mission. While Brian's one-man assault on the bad guy's fortress offers up some fun and well-executed thrills, it pales to Woo's earlier Hong Kong work, and films like "John Wick" and "The Raid" (2011) have effectively redefined this genre of action and raised audience expectations.
Production-wise, it's a good-looking and well-crafted film that was made on a surprisingly small budget for an action movie. The cinematography is good, it's well-lit, and the car chases and fight scenes are exciting and thoughtfully executed. The practical effects look great, but some of the CGI and optical effects are distracting and disappointing. The music is minimalistic and the amount of silence can be distressing at times. I felt like the music should have played a much larger role in a film without dialog, but again, I think that goes back to Woo's attempt to make the drama more visual and contemplative. The acting and sheer physicality of the film are very good, but none of the characters are particularly likable, apart from Brian's silently suffering wife. The police detective is laughably dull and useless, and seems to only exist as a slight nod to "The Killer" (1989).
Overall, it's not a bad film, but it's not the film I wanted to see and I had a hard time enjoying it. While the film would have been a disaster in the hands of a lesser director, it's also not the return to form that I was hoping for. John Woo's themes of heroism, justice, sacrifice, masculinity, and violence feel somewhat outdated and culturally misplaced, and his style of heroic bloodshed that defined the late 80's and 90's seems tired and cliché.