Silent Night (2023)
a review by Evan Landon
There are a lot of ways to make a holiday movie: i.e., throw a paltry, mundanely realistic title at the beginning of a movie that barely scratches the surface of what a film should suppose to presuppose, then throw in tropes that mean absolutely nothing to the overall feeling of the film itself. It almost becomes a lampoon of the feature that could be seen through a bed sheet of irreverence that only a farcical feature could abide by in order to grant it a pass for its outlandishness, but only because it carries the title of the hallmark, but nothing of the theme.
Is Silent Night such a movie? Well... That's iffy.
I think in its broadest respects, Silent Night harkens back to some of the greatest drive-in, b-movies of old that became instant classics amongst the truly devout. The Rutger Hauer classic Blind Fury comes instantly to mind in this fray, but that is not a holiday movie, even in the least bit.
So... what exactly constitutes a “holiday movie”? Is it because it encapsulates what we all think of when it comes to the movie or series, or is it something deeper? Is it a monicker you throw on a movie that really has zero to little of what the movie is, or is it something that reminds you of themes that seem forgotten?
Silent Night has a strange way of doing both.
The things we consider so categorically of a myth or cultural consideration, what is it that goes beyond the haunting aspect of what we desire, regret, forget, or even bluster? Our eyes are constantly trained on what is and what could be, but not what IS. I think that could be the deepest cut of all; we care more about the image than the intricacy. What passes for something that “is, or could never be” is lackadaisically piled in with “thanks for consideration” or “best wishes”. Is that what we celebrate anything for? Is that what we believe?
This movie posits a very simple question: “What would YOU do?”
The premise that a benign, sullen man that becomes deaf after chasing down his children's killers and killing one of them becomes enraged enough to fight the very spirit of death to anything that could ever stop him. Left for dead, he makes a miraculous return to the land of the living. Thus, after training for 365 days, he comes back to take action against those very killers and exact revenge against his son's death, which does definitely happen.
What's my opinion? Let's let action do the talking. We usually let exposition garner favorability when it comes to how we discern what is acceptable or unacceptable. What makes this movie awesome is this movie has ZERO dialogue! Thus, the name “Silent Night”. Duhr! That takes a lot of effort to pull off something so intriguing and John Woo definitely makes a great return by telling a cohesive and detailed story without any dialogue. Joel Kinneman also served a producer, so you can definitely feel the care and attention that went into this.
All in all, I really enjoyed this movie and am looking forward to many more viewings for Christmases to come to find more things that I definitely missed in the theater.
3.5 out of 5