Silent Night - Il silenzio della vendetta

John Woo's "Silent Night" has no right to be this good; it's an emotionally devastating, brutal action flick that truly hits you hard and then some. The movie, devoid of dialogue which never gets annoying or irritating is filled with immense emotional heft, and it delivers ridiculously entertaining, ludicrous almost john wick style action. While the storyline is a variant of "Punisher" and "Death Wish," it's crafted with such style and panache that you're utterly captivated throughout. I was pleasantly surprised-Joel Kinnaman is an absolute force in this.

It was like being transported back to the 90s.

Director John Woo got world famous for his fabulous action visuals during the nineties. This picture still looks the part, but that is about the only positive I can find...

The bad: the action only starts after 50 minutes. Besides an action packed opening scene of a few minutes no thrilling action to be seen during the first 50 minutes.

Is the action any good then? Well yes and no. As I said before, the action looks great visually, but the action choreography is a bit lame, because gangsters get shot and stabbed and just keep on figthing as if nothing has even touched them. Pretty lame. Credibility near zero.

More bad: the leading actor hasnt got any charisma. He looks like a dork. And although there is one big, bad crime guy who was supposed to be the ultimate evil, but he wasnt impressing me either.

I had hoped for a thrilling action packed gangster movie, but it was quite a bit of a dread to watch though...

John Woo is a filmmaker I admittedly haven't seen a tonne of work from, but he undeniably has a vision for action sequences. That is what he is known for and he has stuck to that throughout most of his career in the business. Face/Off and Hard Boiled are awesome action films, so if I ever get the chance, I'll check out his latest. Well, Silent Night is his latest American effort and I must say, he hasn't lost his touch with action. With that said though, it was just okay overall. It has a lot of promise and some great ideas, but something bogged it down for me. Here are my thoughts.

After a gang accidentally kills the son of a couple just trying to live a happy life, the husband, Godlock (Joel Kinnaman) decides to go after them. He ends up shot in the neck, preventing him from ever speaking a word again. His mission then becomes to train his body to take on this gang and kill them all. The unique aspect of this film is the fact that it is told entirely without dialogue. Not a single one of the characters speaks one word. I enjoyed that aspect, but I do wish it was utilized more than just having nobody speak. Nothing was interesting past the point of just not having him talk. It was clear that Woo just wanted to focus on the action and that was worth the price of admission.

There wasn't a lot of originality in terms of the action set pieces, but it was all very well-choreographed. From a standout fight that takes place in a house, to a great stairwell scene, the action held my attention. With that said, the good aspects of this film are bogged down by the sappy nature of the backstory. The way his past with his child is presented is kind of cheesy at first and there is a specific moment towards the end of the film that almost made me chuckle when it was clear the film was trying to be very emotional. The schmaltz of it all overtook the film and ruined a few moments.

Joel Kinnaman is an actor I like very much and his performance here is quite solid, but I'm not sure he was given enough to do, other than either be incredibly angry or sad. It's a very thin story and screenplay and the final product shows that. Still, if you enjoy action, there is enough here to satisfy viewers. The absent dialogue is a great idea, but this type of film needed some in my opinion. Silent Night is a little too cheesy at times, but I still think it's worth a watch if you are already interested. Now playing in theatres, there are worse options to watch than this one.

This is not up to John Woo's talent. I found the material entirely like a one-trick pony. All rage, and sadness, verging on insanity, without any real character development, or pathos. There is nothing in the lead character's story that allows the audience to sympathize with him, other than the loss of his son. There are no positive events to draw us into the story. Instead, we are faced with an ever-increasing level of horror, rage, and madness. Woo has been known to give violence an almost ballet type of choreography (Bullet time slow motion) but that is not what we are seeing here. With the rage of the main character, we are faced with depression, rage, and madness which causes an ever-increasing degree of violence that continues to the very end of the film. This film should have ratings of extreme violence attached. While I watched the entire film I was left with a deep feeling of disatisfaction when it was over. It almost feels like the film was only part of a story.

Painfully stupid, albeit fitting for the time we're living in.

I can almost hear the original pitch. This movie has a GIMMICK. Almost no one speaks a word of dialogue through the entire film. Does it work? NOPE. NOT AT ALL. Because film makers believe the audience is incredibly stupid, now more than ever. And without character motivations carefully explained through words all that is left to do is make every single action that appears on screen cartoonish beyond belief. I kid you not, what appears on screen in this film also works as a perfect parody of modern action movies. This film can be hilarious if you choose to view it from that perspective. I laughed out loud a lot.

I am giving it 3 stars because it is filmed competently. Visually appealing, well edited, well choreographed action. But without believable situations and characters to care about it all falls flat.

And, for the love of all things good, WIND UP MUSIC BOXES MUST BE BANNED FROM CINEMA FROM THIS POINT FORWARD.