The Mosley Review: Silent Night

Anyone else remember the gritty vigilante 2007 thriller Death Sentence starring Kevin Bacon? It was a pure revenge film that had an everyday man going after a murderous street gang and it went through the usually story beats of the justice system failing and the main character taking things into his own hands. Its a concept that repeats itself every few years and I guess it was time for a revisit. The question is: What makes this version of that concept different from the rest? The answer is that we skip all the usual tropes and focus solely on the action and there's zero dialogue. Its everything the legendary action director John Woo is known for and almost all of his trademarks are here. Its a risk to have no dialogue at all and to have the action tell the story these days. It paid off in great fashion because its not that complicated of a plot and it gets us to the brutal action quicker. It’s plus and minus in a sense that the action may be great, but I do miss the days of a great story that was married to and informed the action.

Joel Kinnanman leads the film as the vengeful father Brian and he is challenged with acting with no dialogue. He delivers a powerful and emotionally charged performance and expertly conveys the many stages of grief through a variety of scowls. I loved that we get to see Brian learn how to become a vigilante and he wasn't an over night action hero. He was clumsy and he takes his cuts and bruises so well and I loved that he gets tired. Catalina Sandino Moreno was great as his wife Saya. She carries the emotional weight early on in the story and she nailed the supportive role. She wasn't the focus and nor did she get in the way as the story progressed as she had her own intentions. Scott Mescudi was fun as Detective Dennis Vassel and like everyone else, he delivered a great, dialogueless performance. He doesn't have much to do, but when he does, you can tell he was having the time of his life in the action. Harold Torres was good as the main villain, Playa. He may have been your typical drug lord, but he did have a cool and distinct villainous look. There really wasn't much to him after that, but you truly can't wait to see him and Brian face off.

The score by Marco Beltrami was fantastic when present and he underscored the gritty tone and helped intensive the action in the film. The action was the bread and butter of the film and its all done practically with very little CGI. The driving sequences were realistic and the last 20 minutes of the film feature the best parts of John Woo's signature style of one takes and slow motion. I did notice that he may have been a little rusty with the camera work since there were many occasions where the frame rate was jittery in some simple panning shots. In the end, this wasn't a story that you'll remember for its originality, but you'll remember the film for its lack of dialogue from the characters and how they convey their emotions. The action sequences were brutal and fed the gritty tone and made the film all the more enjoyable. I do wish there was a random dove to fly by though. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in the comments below. Thanks for reading!