Scary Little Christmas: Silent Night (2021) – Shepherds Quake at the Sight

WARNING:  I could not write this review without putting in quite a bit of spoilers!  You have been forewarned.

On the surface, the 2021 film Silent Night looks like a standard holiday themed dark comedy, where a bunch of old school chums, who get together every Christmas, finally air their grievances and upset the status quo, but as the movie progresses, you realize that this is no ordinary Christmas.  It takes place at the vast country estate that belongs to Nell’s (Keira Knightley) family.  As all the guests arrive, you can feel that there is a bit of tension between them all.  Simon (Matthew Goode), Nell’s husband, tries to keep everything cordial.  The guests include Sandra (Annabelle Wallis) and Tony (Rufus Jones) and their spoiled brat of a daughter Kitty (Davida McKenzie).  Bella (Lucy Punch) and her wife, Alex (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) a recovering alcoholic and final couple, James (Sope Dirisu) and his much younger wife, Sophie (Lily-Rose Depp).  Sophie is the only real outsider to the group, and it is alluded, she comes from a more meager background then the other affluent families.  The real star of the film is Art (Roman Griffen Davis), Nell and Simon’s strong-willed son.

The tension between these families, comes from the fact, that this will be their last Christmas together, in fact, this may be the Earth’s last Christmas.  As they all drink and dine and try to keep things as normal as possible, the world is facing an environmental catastrophe that is expected to wipe out all living things in a horrible and painful death, full of anguish and suffering.  Since there is no solution and no cure to what is coming, the British Government issues a single pill to each of its citizens, that will kill you in a quick painless death.  On this evening, the families are all celebrating one last time, before they all take the pills together and die gracefully on their own terms.

So, this isn’t a post-apocalyptic story, it is a pre-apocalyptic tale, very PRE-apocalyptic, like hours before the apocalypse.  The premise is fascinating to me, and raises all sorts of moral questions, and it could have been a very hard-hitting emotional story that would have left me in tears, both from laughter and the very sadness of the situation.  The problem is none of the main characters are very likeable.  They are all self-absorbed, snobbish and a bit bitchy.  Sophie and Alex are the two most empathetic characters, but there isn’t enough focus on them until the end to really feel any emotional impact.  Nell isn’t bad, but in this role, Keira Knightley just didn’t connect with me.  Roman Griffin Davis as Art is the only character that I really felt anything for, but even then, the vulgarity of the script took away any real connections. There are a lot of great actors in the film, and they all do a great job, but I think the script is flawed.  To me, you must like someone, you must have someone to really root for.  A hero!  That doesn’t mean a hero can’t be flawed, but they must be likeable.

The other issue I had, and this is a much more personal one,  I am not sure if it was intentional, but in our current situation with a pandemic causing political riffs, this movie seemed to be shining a dark light on science and questions the motives of the government.  I felt a slight anti-vax vibe, although the movie was filmed before vaccinations began, so it is probably just coincidence.  There is an underlying message of “Don’t give up on life”, but it is buried too deep in government conspiracy theories, scientific mistrust, and unlikeable characters, to really get that message.