Silent Night, John Woo’s Thriller, Is As Close To Genre Genuflection As Possible, And Yet…

silent night, john woo’s thriller, is as close to genre genuflection as possible, and yet…

The czar of stylised action John Woo is back with his first English-language film in twenty years. His last film in angrezi was the crazy Ben Affleck starrer Pay Check. Silent Night is much stronger leaner and unforgiving work than Woo’s earlier blockbusters Hard Target (1993), Broken Arrow (1996), Face/Off (1997) and Mission: Impossible 2 (2000).

Silent Night stands out. The volume of violence lives up to the Woo-ers expectations. But this time there is something keenly emotional about the action. We could say, the action is underlined by pre-action.

The film is called Silent Night not only because it is set during the days of Christmas, but also because the hero Brian (played by the Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman) doesn’t speak. He can’t, and not only on account of being choked with grief after he loses his son in a street gang war, but also because, during the shootout he is shot in the throat and his vocal chords are destroyed. So is his life.

There are no dialogues in the film. Everyone is too busy grieving and venting to talk. There is a profoundly moving undercurrent to this blood-soaked actioner. As played by Kinnaman, Brian’s grief is so palpable, it reaches out of the screen and grabs us by the throat. We completely understand why Brian needs to take the law into his own hands. And why his faithful wife Saya Catalina Sandino Moreno leaves him (so much for mera ‘Saya’ saath hoga).

When such bereavement hits a couple, the marriage often breaks down. John Woo’s film peers deeply into the anatomy of vendetta. What I really liked about this action film is how vulnerable Brian really is. He has no idea how he would get even with the criminals who destroyed his life(have you noticed how films about happy families almost always pan out into murder and tragedy?).

Brian’s self training as a shooter and an assassin occupies a large chunk of the narration. Kinnaman looks so much like everyman, like Richard Gadd in the recent series Baby Reindeer. We know the muscles are not the way out.

The narration is agreeably fat-free and lean. Once Brian’s revenge begins , there is no stopping the screeching tyres, the blazing guns and the tide of blood.

To be honest, I enjoyed Brian’s grieved preparation for the revenge more than the revenge itself. The shooting feels too rehearsed, which it is, since Brian had planned every move in his march towards the Christmas mayhem , right down to the minutest detail. More than the payoff, it is that sense of sinking dread at the start that grips our hearts.

Silent Night is a meditation on violence as a manifestation of grief. Why do ordinary law-abiding God-fearing people take to violence? This, Charles Bronson asked forty years ago in his Death Wish series. In Silent Night that death-wish gets an all-new life.