File this under: Unexpected Christmas Movies. Writer /director Camille Grifin’s first feature, Silent Night, begins as many holiday movies do—a group of old friends gathering at someone’s home to celebrate Christmas. The isolated, British countryside home belongs to Nell (Keira Knightley) and Simon (Matthew Goode), whose eldest son Art (Jojo Rabbit’s Roman Griffin Davis) is a bit too keenly aware of what is actually going on this fateful day. His parents have forbade him from watching TV or using any electronics to find out what the rest of the world is up to.
Image courtesy of AMC+.
Each new family arrives displaying various forms of dysfunction. Sandra (Annabelle Wallis) and Tony (Rufus Jones) arrive with their spoiled-rotten daughter; lesbian couple Bella (Lucy Punch) and Alex (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) are ready to drink; and the handsome James (Sope Dirisu) shows up with his American girlfriend Sophie (Lily-Rose Depp), who is none too certain if she’s fully on board with being there, let alone going through with everyone’s plan for the evening. Nell is barely holding it together as these age-old friends gather for Christmas dinner because behind the laughter, jokes, judgment, games, drinking, and holiday activities lurks something unexpected.
It turns out, after years of having its environment abused, the planet has belched up a massive pollution cloud that is circling the globe killing everyone and everything in its path, and it's scheduled to hit this little corner of the world early the next morning, giving the group time to reminisce, dance a bit, and prepare to say their goodbyes before taking suicide pills rather than allow the poisonous gas to liquify their organs in a most painful manner. But young Art is having his doubts about the veracity of the science and his chances of surviving. Meanwhile Sophie has recently discovered she’s pregnant and has decided not to take the pill because she doesn’t want to kill her unborn child, which in the grand scheme of things makes no sense, but she too seems to want to take her chances against the crumbling environment.
My biggest issue with Silent Night is that I hated nearly all of the characters, and I’m fairly certain we’re meant to like most of them and actually be sad when the end comes. But aside from the two dissenters, everyone else comes across as selfish, tiresome, and often quite cruel, especially to Sophie, whose greatest sin appears to be that she isn’t part of the original group and dares to stray from the agreed-upon plan (agreed upon by everyone but her, that is). I kept expecting the film, which takes the end of the world rather casually, to turn a corner and reveal that somehow the end of the world spares this group, but that is not the case. And the resulting film feels slight and rather pointless, especially the final shot, which I’m not sure I even completely understand.
I’m a great admirer of both Knightley and Goode, and they’re both giving it their all. But their talents seem mostly wasted here. She tries to keep everyone’s spirits up through the long final day, while he is more stern with anyone who steps outside the illusion that everything is alright and chins should be kept up. We keep waiting for a deeper meaning to reveal itself in Silent Night, and it just doesn’t happen. And as a result, the entire affair feels mostly artless and spiritually bankrupt.
The film is now playing in select theaters and streaming on AMC+.
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