The Pitch: It’s hard to imagine having a worse Christmas than Brian Godluck (Joel Kinnaman) does, when John Woo’s Silent Night begins: Not only is his son brutally killed by a drive-by shooter in his own front yard, but when he chases after the culprits on foot, he ends up getting shot in the throat by gang leader Playa (Harold Torres), an injury which severs Brian’s vocal cords and renders him unable to speak.
While there’s one good cop (Scott Mescudi) in this small crime-ridden California town, the authorities are otherwise useless. So, despite the presence of his loving wife (Catalina Sandino Moreno), who’s also grieving the loss of their son, Brian becomes obsessed with getting revenge for his son’s death. The months following his initial injury are spent first recovering, then engaging in intense physical training, as he builds up an arsenal and develops the skills he needs to take down Playa and his men. All without saying a word.
Not so Tender and Mild: Despite the occasional iconic line reading like “I want to take his face… off,” the films of John Woo have never been known for their dialogue. Which perhaps makes the Hong Kong auteur the perfect director to take on a narrative experiment like Silent Night, a story told entirely without dialogue, instead relying on visuals and wordless performances to depict this simple tale of revenge.
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This approach has multiple benefits, a major one being that it keeps the movie focused on where you know Woo can deliver: the action. It’s wild how many genuinely bad fight scenes make it to the screen every year, incoherent editing and nonsense camera angles concealing half-baked choreography. There’s so much bad action out there, in fact, that you can get a little numb to it — which makes getting to see a gifted craftsman like this at work an invigorating experience. Woo isn’t reinventing the genre here; there are no seismic leaps forward for the art form. But what he delivers is clean and coherent, delivering visceral impacts with the precision of a master. Because that’s what he is.
Shepherds Quake at the Sight: Meanwhile, if you want a guy who will tear into a role like this with the intensity of a thousand angry Stathams (but more pathos) Joel Kinnaman is a hard choice to beat. Best known for his TV work on Altered Carbon, The Killing, and For All Mankind, the Swedish actor proves surprisingly emotive, even without words. It helps that he really only has one emotion to play: Unfettered rage. But he does find some strong angles on it, especially when coping with the frustration of his limitations.
Silent Night (Lionsgate)