Silent Night

I cannot believe some of the poor reviews solely because it wasn't a Christmas film!! This film was grim but realistic, superbly acted with a great story, I think if you're not British then you won't get it. Highly reccomended.

Was expecting a one dimensional gangland thriller but this delivered a lot more. Gritty and remarkably well shot, yes...but there's elements of dark humour in there and decent performances, particularly from "Mark" the lead. Well worth a watch.

Because this movie has plenty of gunfire and violence, surely enough for most fans of the crime thriller genre. The cast all make their characters believable and interesting, even those with small roles like the cop. The dialogue has some clever bits, and Silent Night's director, Will Thorne, did a fine job dealing with all the challenges of making a by no means simple gangland revenge story entertaining. If this comes out as a DVD with a director's cut, it could well be worth buying just to see how movies are made in gritty urban settings.

What really sets Silent Night apart, however, is a twist in the plot. Can't say much about that without taking this review into spoiler territory, but the twist certainly puts Mark in a whole different light. Not necessarily a better light, however.

I have a suspicion that the wide variation in how this film was perceived probably depends on whether you're British or not. As a Brit - and from South London to boot - I was pleasantly surprised by this film, and especially the lead (Bradley Taylor), who was outstanding throughout. Twist was unexpected, well executed but fell down slightly on the originality front. Full of South London grit and black humour, and the director somehow managed to eke sympathy for Taylor's character out of me when I'm not convinced much was deserved. Time well spent with this one.

The setup has been done to death, so beyond its Christmas backdrop I wasn't expecting much. It is entertaining enough until the contracts begin, at which point it sort of picks up steam.

The final act is full of twists and turns that while not entirely original, were a pleasant surprise given what I thought would be a much more straight forward "seen this setup a hundred times before" type ordeal (guy out of prison, tries going clean, drawn in for "one last job" etc).

I start all movies at neutral 5 and go from there. Most tend to get a 6 (slightly positive +1) if they generally entertain, but for its unforeseen twists and turns and what was a genuinely enthralling final act, this rose to +2 (7/10)