REVIEW: ‘Silent Night’ Commits An Action Movie’s Biggest Sin

Joel Kinnaman is absolutely fantastic in action series and films, and John Woo, even with his missteps directorially, is usually trustworthy for a fun action romp, if nothing else. Somehow, Silent Night commits an action movie’s biggest sin: it’s boring.

Directed by John Woo and written by Robert Archer Lynn, Silent Night offers up a standard revenge tale of tormented father Brian (Joel Kinnaman), who witnesses his young son die when caught in a gang’s crossfire on Christmas Eve. While recovering from a wound that costs him his voice, he makes vengeance his life’s mission. Only his path to avenging his son is one that isn’t going to come easy. He has to train, build, and become something entirely different. The only issue is that it takes the first two acts to get to the point where the action of vengeance begins.

Films that don’t use any dialogue or very sparse dialogue have an uphill battle in keeping the audience entertained, but genre films are able to accomplish this well because of their ability to use set pieces and pacing to ramp up tension and emotion. This year alone, John Wick 4 featured a now-iconic, mostly silent protagonist and fights that continue as entire sequences without words or exposition. In the sci-fi space, No One Will Save You presented a masterclass in sound design and atmospheric tension in its dialogue absent story. Against those two films, Silent Night is mediocre at best.

Instead of crafting a story that uses a silent protagonist and identifying ways to enhance the story through visuals and sound design, Silent Night literally ends with a letter read on the screen. Not only that, the constant gunfire lacks impact, the score doesn’t manage to ramp up with the film’s emotion, and it’s just too empty. Despite Joel Kinnaman acting with intent, like the shock he shows on his first moment of revenge, or when he’s crying in grief, the film around him does nothing to drive any emotional impact.

Brian’s journey from an electrician to a killer is in and of itself a fantastic concept. He isn’t good at shooting, he doesn’t know how to fight, and he is just bad at fighting back. Becoming someone who can get revenge is an arc that can work wonders in a story, but his montage is too rudimentary and simple but extremely long.

There is a lot in the film that could be edited out, almost as if the film was directed and written with dialogue in mind and simply removed to get the final product. Nothing feels crafted to suit the theme, which turns it into a gimmick that doesn’t pay off. Silence is not the issue here. Not understanding how to use it is, especially with an actor as charismatic and endearing as Kinnaman.

On top of that, the downtime between action scenes is too long, with everything being shoved into the final act with no room to develop or breathe. Add in the fact that the shootouts are so chaotic and frantic, with every bad guy having the aim of a stormtrooper, and it’s hard to understand how the concept and the action moments were squandered so much. The potential was there, but it went nowhere.

Silent Night’s villain isn’t even intimidating. I mean, a stray bullet does not make a villain. Add in the fact that he apparently really loves Christmas enough to hang giant ornaments from his ceiling and dance in a Santa robe while his place is sieged. It is a level of absurdity that isn’t played as if it understands the camp it could be swinging for. And that’s pretty much the entire film.

If we step back, that’s what Silent Night is. It’s a lot of maybes strung into a story that is too long, too slow, and doesn’t embrace any of its potential.

Silent Night is available now on VOD.