Silent Night ★★½

ACTION thriller Silent Night is one of the disappointments of the 2023 film year.

It’s not a bad movie, but action fans still expect much more from veteran Hong Kong director John Woo.

Now that I have chosen not to watch most film trailers, I didn’t realise there is no dialogue spoken by characters in Woo’s latest, aside from some police radio chatter,

It just doesn’t work and becomes a constant source of distraction from the story as you sit there pondering the value of this cinematic trick.

The fact characters only emit emotion through their face and movements isn’t the issue. That’s the path that Woo has chosen to take.

But it’s an unnecessary path that ultimately detracts rather than adds to the impact of the story.

Joel Kinnaman is quite good as a father whose son is killed during a gun battle between gang members.

His initial attempt to seek revenge results in him coming off very much the worse for wear.

But after months of intense training he develops the required fitness, fighting ability and weapons know-how to take on hordes of gangbangers.

There are some very good action sequences but, in the world that includes John Wick, it’s getting harder to impress.