★★★★
Whereas he could also be a reliable director for probably the most half, the title John Woo (Paycheck) isn’t one which instantly screams “substance.” Nonetheless, Silent Night time showcases Woo’s capability to serve up one thing way more significant than the common popcorn flick.
Healthful household man Brian (Joel Kinnaman) is a virtually picture-perfect husband and father, however his complete worldview is shattered when his neighborhood turns into the newest battleground in an ongoing gang conflict. He loses his son within the crossfire, whereas one other stray bullet deprives him of his voice. What seemed to be a ravishing Christmas simply moments earlier than turns into a grief-stricken tragedy that in the end drives his spouse (Catalina Moreno) away from him as his focus narrows on revenge.
There’s not a lot to say concerning the story itself. Regardless of following a quite predictable and trope-laden plot thread, it’s additionally curiously muddled at occasions. As an example, Brian goes out of his strategy to contain police detective Dennis (Scott Mescudi) by presenting him with proof linking the assault to gang chief Playa (Harold Torres). This, nevertheless, happens when he already seems set on retaliation. Contemplating how rapidly Brian trains himself within the artwork of homicide, it’s laborious to think about him being absent-minded sufficient to attract police consideration proper earlier than embarking on a bloodthirsty rampage. Like most of the movie’s story beats, this second clearly solely exists to ahead the plot.
Even so, viewers capable of forgive headscratchers like these will discover that the movie doesn’t excel on the idea of what the story is about, however quite within the method it’s introduced. Brian is way from the one wordless participant within the movie, but Woo embraces the idea of “present, don’t inform” with gorgeous artistry. To name it a contemporary silent movie can be inaccurate, because the music and gunfire nonetheless ring clear all through. Even older silent movies typically relied on textual content to talk for the characters, whereas Brian’s emotional arc is instructed totally by means of Kinnaman’s tortured expressions. In the meantime, Woo continuously employs overhead pictures to indicate the total scale of demise and destruction that Playa and the person he’s wronged have wrought upon their environment.
Though wordless expression pervades all through, Kinnaman handles it higher than anybody. There’s one notably chilling scene through which he appears unable to simply accept his lack of speech. Though his lifeless son serves little extra operate than as a prop to arrange some old school bloodletting, Kinnaman’s efficiency on this scene captures a way of helplessness acquainted to anybody who’s suffered PTSD following a violent prison encounter. He’s caught in a world far completely different from the one he thought he lived in solely days earlier than. Trapped on this new existence, he has nowhere to show aside from vengeful ideation. Even when he begins taking steps to make that vengeance a actuality, his eyes hardly masks the vulnerability that’s taken over this once-joyful father.
After all, it wouldn’t be a John Woo film if this didn’t set the scene for some insane bullet ballet. True to type, Woo manages to make each single motion scene stand aside. Among the finest scenes deprive Brian of firepower altogether, with one fisticuff duel specifically standing out as among the many most grueling, tension-filled fights put to movie. What actually makes the motion stand out, nevertheless, is that Woo ends most of the movie’s battles with quiet moments that give the viewers time to course of what they’ve seen. Slightly than shoveling handfuls of popcorn in between shootouts, viewers are reminded that these demise battles are fairly actual for the characters partaking in them.
Silent Night time most likely lacks the franchise potential of a John Wick film, however that’s okay. Along with his first American movie in many years, John Woo has proven that he has way more to supply than over-the-top motion and tacky dialogue. Apparently, an previous canine can study new methods. If he continues to make the most of these methods in future outings, all the panorama of motion movies could also be higher for it.
