by May Honey, Contributing Writer
John Woo’s new action film, Silent Night,is decidedly being marketed as a big return to bombastic and cartoonish action for the director. In a world where the John Wicks, Mission: Impossibles, and Fast and Furiousesare ruling the box office in the action space, it makes sense for Woo to make his return now. Especially when the bedrock of those franchises are often either related, or directly involving, Woo’s monumental legacy and influence. Unfortunately for those expecting that fun action extravaganza going in, Silent Night simply is not that. Starring Joel Kinnaman as the lead and only major role, it is a notably morose and reflective film. I’d go as far as to call it a revisionist action film in the same way that movies like Unforgiven and Django Unchained were dubbed revisionist westerns by recontextualizing and replaying the familiar tropes you know in a new light, with a new tone. In a way, Silent Night is a movie I couldn’t have ever expected from Woo, being the extremely over the top filmmaker he is, but itis deeply rewarding to those on its level.
The central filmmaking conceit/gimmick of this movie is, in a way, the thread that you can pull its entire creative lens and goal through. In the opening scene, Godlock (Kinnaman) gets shot in the neck, resulting in a permanent loss of his voice. The film then entirely experientially reflects this in its decision to be almost entirely dialogue-free. As Godlock lost his voice, so has the movie lost its ability to use dialogue as a storytelling tool. Not only is this an advantage for Woo, who has always been a more visually inclined filmmaker, but one that helps highlight different emotions of the story as it plays out in a familiar way. It is a standard revenge narrative structurally and through its plot, but this is where the revisionist kicks in. Often during a fairly normal scene, Woo intelligently pulls back the camera and allows us as an audience to see these actions for what they are in isolation, but more importantly, the consequences they may have. Instead of the heroic determination against an evil villain, it’s always framed more as a dangerous obsession. One that progressively swallows him whole as the film goes on. The very meat-and-potatoes, one-thing-at-a-time pace of the movie never allows us to view him as anything other than a very flawed man, as he goes from the Rocky-style character development of being able to do one pull-up, to eventually many more pull ups. Not at all a complaint by the way. And this all being done by Woo, instead of some newcomer, feels meaningful and reflective in a way that is decidedly unexpected.
Woo really directs the hell out of this thing too. The action scenes that are present dial it back in my favorite way. All the encounters are simple, but the hits feel heavy. Every move that Kinnaman or his many opponents make really take it out of them. The pain feels real and ever-present. Every beat feels truly consequential, and the portrayal of such vulnerability through the writing and Kinnaman’s tortured performance really bring all of that out. I’d also be remiss not to mention that the film does have incredible camerawork and some truly wild editing. Those two being the biggest evidence of the sillier side of Woo’s previous work creeping in.
As an overall film Silent Night is not entirely flawless, but it’s extremely thoughtful in its interpretation of the action hero’s journey for revenge, and the different ways it can be emotionally felt. This is a film bound to disappoint many people. If you want that catharsis in watching an absolute gut-punch of a downer action film, or the joy of a playful R-rated murder-fest, this movie won’t fully commit to giving you either. I’d argue, though, that it finds its way into a mature middle ground that will never tell you how to feel, but it will make you question how you’re supposed to react. Should I care about him even when he may be too far gone? At what point does an extremely sympathetic motive become not enough? In what ways may the tropes of these characters be either outdated, or at the very least, need to be updated? Those are the dramatic questions being asked here, and why I found it to be an extremely valuable and meaningful watch. More valuable than any answers to those questions ever could have truly been.
Rating: High Side of Liked It
Silent Night is currently playing in theaters
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