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Silent Night — Review: Great Action, but a little too Melodramatic
by KJ Proulx
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.
