R 2023 Action/Thriller 1h 44m
Watch out, Die Hard, there’s a new action Christmas movie on the scene! Just kidding, DH, you have nothing to worry about; Silent Night is a real stinker. <Editor’s note: bad dad joke about the movie ending up on the naughty list removed to spare readers.>
Bryan is playing with his son in his front yard on Christmas when two rival gangs drive past shooting at each other and accidentally shoot and kill the boy and Bryan is shot in the throat rendering him unable to speak. The gang members in this movie use automatic weapons and can’t shoot each other from three feet away from each other. They all attended Star Wars’ Storm Trooper Gun Academy. Clearly the only way they managed to shoot the boy is because they weren’t aiming at him. This movie falls into In the genre of “the wrong man is wronged and seeks his revenge” like movies Death Wish and Nobody and comic book “The Punisher” except those are better.
Bryan is not able to speak because of his wound. That doesn’t explain why no one else in the movie talks. For real. No dialogue. After the accident Bryan’s marriage falls apart and they only communicate via text. The gang members communicate with each other via text. The lack of dialogue feeds into the “Silent Night” title but it felt more like its purpose was to make the movie easier to run in non-English markets.
After his wife leaves, Bryan is able to focus on training. At Easter time, he marks Christmas Day on his calendar with “kill them all. Gang war.” In a training montage that shows the calendar months flipping by: Bryan fixes up a car to be nice and bullet-proof, learns to drive the car in circles real fast so smoke comes off the tires, he can do chin ups!, and he watches YouTube videos on getting good at stabbing. Bruce Wayne has an established source of income to fund his vigilantism. This man hasn’t worked in a calendar year. I have no idea where he gets the money to buy satchels of automatic weapons and other items in his arsenal.
The movie is senselessly violent and our “hero” is not a sympathetic character. His son was killed but Bryan’s killing spree doesn’t seem justified. Instead of rooting for him as a hero/anti-hero, it just feels like it’s feeding violence culture. It wasn't fun. It also tries to be moving, but it fell flat to me.
For Christmas this year, I’ll give you the gift of an hour and forty-four minutes back: don’t see this movie.
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