Silent Night

Directed by Camille Griffin, Silent Night follows several friends, including Keira Knightley’s Nell, Matthew Goode’s Simon, and Lily-Rose Depp’s Sophie, as they come together for a Christmas get-together that eventually goes in unexpected directions. It’s familiar territory that is, at the outset, employed to underwhelming and far-from-promising effect by Griffin, as the first-time filmmaker, working from her own screenplay, delivers a standard holiday tale that’s rife with precisely the sort of elements one anticipates from stories of this ilk – including an emphasis on the characters’ squabbling conversations and a smattering of unexpected revelations. (It doesn’t, certainly, help that the most of the performers find themselves trapped in the confines of less-than-sympathetic figures.) There’s little doubt, then, that Silent Night‘s success is due predominantly to a mid-movie plot twist that paves the way for an engaging (and impressively bleak) second half, and although the periodic inclusion of off-kilter, needlessly comedic elements remains a distraction, the whole thing builds towards an unexpectedly absorbing final stretch that admittedly packs one hell of a grim punch – which ultimately cements the picture’s place as an erratic yet rewarding endeavor that’s surely destined to become a holiday-themed cult classic.

*** out of ****