TIFF ’21 Review: ‘Silent Night’ effectively combines two unlikely genres
‘Silent Night’ centres on a heartwarming holiday gathering in the country that is shrouded in a cloud of impending tragedy.
At various points throughout human history, people have believed the end of the world was imminent. The Mayan calendar supposedly predicted it. Religions prophesize an eventual apocalypse or rapture. The Cold War threatened a nuclear holocaust. The Doomsday Clock monitors our proximity to complete and utter destruction. Scientists forecast climate change and global warming could result in absolute devastation in the near future. Regardless of the cause, humans have a long track record of fearing mass extinction. But if some prognostication proves true and there’s a warning, how would people react? In Silent Night, a family celebrates the holidays as approaching doom engulfs the country.
At a remote country home, a group of friends and family gather to celebrate Christmas. Adults and children don their nicest outfits for a dinner with all the fixings — including the all-important sticky toffee pudding. They dance, drink, open presents, reminisce and laugh about transgressions from decades earlier. But underneath it all is a tension that permeates all their revelry with a sense of sadness and finiteness. One of the boys seems especially sensitive about typically adult topics, like politics and mortality, and frequently sneaks away to visit an alarming government website that has detailed instructions similar to those found on a plane in case of emergency. There’s a choice lingering in the air and it gets heavier as the night wears on.
The narrative takes this familiar “home for the holidays” trope and points it in an entirely new direction. The film begins with the typical chaos as the host family prepares for everyone’s arrival — trying to finish all the food preparation, getting the children bathed and making sure the rooms are ready. Each group’s entrance is met with warm hugs… and gloomy affirmations of a mysterious agreement. It’s some time before the magnitude of the evening is revealed, though clues are dropped via various conversations and newscasts. Once all the pieces are in place, what becomes most surprising is the calmness with which most of them have accepted their situation.
This is an unusual picture because it combines two contradictory genres with remarkable ease. The ensemble cast — which includes Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Roman Griffin Davis, Lily-Rose Depp, Sope Dirisu, Lucy Punch, Annabelle Wallis, Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Rufus Jones — does a wonderful job drawing audiences into this story with their laughter and tears. Moreover, the house seems so warm and inviting, viewers want to get to know these people and become engrossed in their festivities. Even when things take a darker tone over dinner or when the topic of past relationships emerges over drinks — or the evening’s significance is revealed — you want to be there with them. Freshman writer/director Camille Griffin’s film lacks the pessimism that generally dominates this type of movie and it feels simultaneously refreshing and contradictory.
Silent Night is screening as part of the Gala Presentations programme at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Read other reviews from the festival.
Director: Camille Griffin
Starring: Annabelle Wallis, Matthew Goode and Keira Knightley
