Silent Night

 

      From famed action director John Woo comes this nasty revenge thriller with a twist. The tag line is "Action speaks louder than words". It couldn't be more true as this film has no spoken dialog.

     Joel Kinnaman stars as Brian, a father who, at the beginning of the film,  loses his little boy during Christmas, to gang violence. He is wounded with a shot to the throat when he chases down the responsible gang. Unable to speak, Mr. Kinnaman relies on his impressive physical acting talents to convey his emotions..

    The film co-stars Scott Mescudi as the detective in charge of gang violence, Harold Torres as Playa, the leader of the gang, and Catalina Sandino Moreno as Saya, Brian's wife. There is no spoken dialog from any of the principal characters, only ambient noise, background chatter on a police radio, and a pulsing score, from Marco Beltrami, that drives the action.

    Brian circles the following Christmas on his calendar and spends the rest of the year getting in shape to get his revenge by hunting down the gang and killing them all. 

   While a typical action/revenge plot, the lack of dialog makes for an interesting experiment. In the hands of another director, it could have been a major failure but John Woo certainly knows how to deliver. While not his best work, it's still an exciting film filled with the creative, violent action you would expect from Mr. Woo.