In a vacuum, “Silent Night” seems like any number of action movies about non-superheroic and (either implicitly or explicitly) paternally-inspired one-man killing machines. Joel Edgerton plays a bereaved father who loses his young son to a stray bullet on Christmas eve, and embarks on a year-long quest to get revenge on the gang members responsible.
There are two twists to the formula. The initial violence also costs our anti-hero his vocal chords. This leaves him mute (yes, making the title a Christmas-themed double entendre) and the film itself almost dialogue-free. Second, it marks the first Hollywood feature film from action god John Woo in