Silent Night (#490)

Yesterday I saw what I guess is Hollywood’s first of the year Christmas movies.  They may have missed the true meaning of Christmas in SILENT NIGHT, which might have been named Silent Movie, because there is not one line of dialogue in this film.  The only sounds are music, including Silent Night, car chases and crashes, bullets firing, screams and either police radio broadcasts or local newscasts on the radio.  And surprisingly, no voices works and is effective in this too violent pre-holiday movie.  A man, his wife and young son are playing in the yard of their home when two gangs drive recklessly down the street shooting at each other.  Unfortunately one or more stray rounds hit the little boy and kills him and others pierce the throat of the father.  The rest of the film depicts the recovering father, morose and angry, engaged in a punishing fitness program, learning hand-to-hand combat with a knife and learning to use a variety of guns to seek revenge on the gangs, one of whom he recognizes from the drive-by incident.  The film is well done and features extreme close-ups, including the surgery on his neck (bloody and realistic) which leaves him unable to speak.  The shooting of his family occurred around Christmas and he embarks on a violent revenge extravaganza the following Christmas.  He must be responsible for dozens of killings, and the film is poignant with flashbacks of his family throughout.  Despite the endless sadness and violence  of the film, I liked it and thought it was very well done.  Critics gave it 59% thumbs up, but there were no audience ratings as of this writing.