‘Silent Night’ Review – Joel Kinnaman Goes Full Batman In Brutal Action Thriller

Jacob Smith |

Dec 13, 2023

Joel Kinnaman as Brian Godlock in Silent Night (2023), Lionsgate

Silent Night is a movie where the main protagonist (Joel Kinnaman) doesn’t say a single line of dialogue throughout the entirety of its runtime. Interestingly, Nicolas Cage, Kinnaman’s co-star in Sympathy For the Devil, portrayed a silent character in Willy’s Wonderland just a few years ago. Fortunately, for this film, there is an explanation for why our protagonist doesn’t speak.

Joel Kinnaman as Brian Godlock, Catalina Sandino Moreno as Saya, and Anthony Giulietti in Silent Night (2023), Lionsgate

Kinnaman plays Brian, an everyday electrician who finds himself at the worst point of his life after his son is gunned down in a battle between rival gangs. After witnessing the death of his son, Brian attempts to take matters into his own hands and is ultimately shot in the neck for his troubles; losing the ability to speak due to his damaged vocal cords.

Brian falls into a deep depression, where the only thing preventing him from drinking himself to death is getting revenge for the death of his son.

Catalina Sandino Moreno as Saya and Anthony Giulietti in Silent Night (2023), Lionsgate

Realizing that the police aren’t going to be much help in this matter, the distressed parent decides to take the law into his own hands; training himself for the next calendar year to get revenge on the gang that murdered his son.

With revenge stories like this, it’s hard not to make comparisons to Frank Castle and the Punisher; a man loses his kid, in the worst possible accident you can think of, and the only thing that drives him is getting revenge on the people who did it.

Brian essentially becomes Batman over the course of the next few months; building his own car, getting his own body suit, and making sure that there’s nothing that could frustrate his mission, which is pure vengeance.

Silent Night manages to combine visual storytelling with brutal action to sell the film. The visual pain and anguish in Kinnaman’s performance tell a better story than he possibly could by saying words. If you are a fan of Punisher-style brutality, then you’ll be well served with this film.

With director John Woo and the producers of the John Wick franchise at the helm, audiences will notice a lot of similarities such as fighting choreography and stunts. Because this is a film about violence and revenge, of course, you can expect some woke critics out there to complain that in the movie there’s a white guy killing a bunch of Hispanic gang members.

If your enjoyment of a movie only comes down to the race of people getting shot, as Jorge Masvidal once said, maybe it’s time for you to go back to watching soccer.

While some critics will argue that Silent Night is a throwback to the type of ’90s and ’80s action films that audiences don’t want to see anymore, I say that the fact that Hollywood doesn’t make movies like this anymore is exactly the reason why they’re experiencing 100-plus million-dollar loss film after another.

Silent Night is one of the better films you can watch this holiday season. That isn’t unless you’re one of those people who probably doesn’t have a good relationship with their family to begin with. For everyone else, this film is a brilliant action thriller.