From director John Woo comes  ‘Silent Night, his first film since 2017’s Manhunt and which does have a slight gimmick attached to it. Its a film where none of the characters utter dialogue. This isn’t a silent film though, far from it. we hear radio broadcasts, police radio broadcasts, screams, grunts, shouts, and tons of gunfire and fight noise, just as you’d expect and hope for from a John Woo film who is easily one of the best directors of action films. But is Silent Night up there with the best of the John Woo films such as Hard Boiled, The Killer, A Better Tomorrow and Bullet In The Head. Sadly not in my opinion and ill tell you why without spoiling anything as there is still so much to love about Silent Night.

I can’t help feel that the ‘no dialogue’ experiment with Silent Night overshadows much of the enjoyment of the film, certainly in its early stages and definitely in the non action scenes. When the film kicks into action mode which is does often, its classic Woo. You can see the brilliance of John Woo in these action scenes, we are treated to much of the ballet style gun fights that John Woo fans (like myself) adore and it reminds us why we love the guy and all the films he has done over the years.  Handguns in each hand: Check, Flying through the air whilst taking out the villains: Check. Fight scenes that defy realism but we don’t care because are loving the visual spectacle : Check.  ‘Silent Night’ does have all those things but its the non action scenes where characters don’t talk to each other, it feels really unnatural and takes you out of the film on many occasions. 

Did the odd choice of doing a film where no one verbally talks to each other ( we see some characters texting each other in the film) dampen my enjoyment to the point of not enjoying the film? Hell no. In an age where audiences moan about sequels, remakes, prequels, reboots and franchises, I love that there is a film like ‘Silent Night’ out there and if anyone’s going to try something different with a movie, I love that its John Woo. He aimed for the stars and whilst the film didn’t quite hit the heights I hoped it would. I’ve spent a great evening, watching Brian (played by Joel Kinnaman) head off on a revenge spree, guns in hand, fighting his way through bad guys (and bad women too) all in the cinematic hands of one of my favourite filmmakers John Woo. I can imagine that many of the reviews for ‘Silent Night’ are less than favourable and whilst I haven’t read anyone’s thoughts on the film as yet, I suspect that its the lack of dialogue aspect that people will struggle with. But all credit to John Woo and the team who made this film. They wanted to give us something we hadn’t seen before and you yourself should make up your own mind whether you love it, like it, or aren’t a fan of it, but do check it out yourself.