Movie Review – Silent Night

It is an interesting premise: make an action movie without dialog for the main characters. It puts a huge onus on the actors to communicate emotionally without using any dialogue. On that mark, they were pretty successful. However, I feel that they sacrificed the quality of the movie on a stunt, and it would be better suited if they only kept the main character silent but gave dialog to the other actors. In particular, never giving the wife any dialogue was unnecessarily limiting. Limiting the husband/wife interaction made the husband less likable.

Action

It was okay, but nothing to prop up the movie by itself. I found the scene with the druggy woman to be clunky, which made the entire ending a bit of a spectacle, and not in a good way. Plus, adding the police detective to the mix and not giving him any lines was really out of balance with reality.

Ultimately, I would recommend this movie unless you’re a big fan of Joel Kinnerman or if you’re a film student and want to pick apart what works and what doesn’t. In this instance, they took an interesting premise too far just for the sake of saying they could do it. The lesson is, don’t fall in love with a brilliant idea and let it ruin a good movie.

Grade: C-

About The Peetimes: I have two good Peetimes in the first half of the movie. The second half is nothing but action. I would recommend the 2nd Peetime as the best. It’s a training montage that is very easy to summarize. Note: the main character’s (Joel Kinnaman) name is never mentioned. I will refer to him in the Peetimes as Joel.

There are no extra scenes during, or after, the end credits of Silent Night.

Rated:	(R) Drug Use | Strong Bloody Violence | Some Language
Genres:	Action
Starring:	Joel Kinnaman, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Kid Cudi
Director:	John Woo
Writer(s):	Robert Archer Lynn
Language:	None
Country:	United States

Plot
A grieving father enacts his long-awaited revenge against a ruthless gang on Christmas Eve.