Silent Night (15)

Nell hurriedly prepares a last supper for her old school friends and family before the arrival of a poisonous toxin that will supposedly guarantee a slow and painful demise for everyone on the planet. The government prescribes suicide pills and Nell and her husband Simon procure sufficient medication for the family including their three sons Art, Hardy and Thomas. As guests arrive and alcohol flows, differences of opinion about committing suicide divide the guests.

LondonNet Film Review
Silent Night (15)

Stiff upper lips bead with sweat when Mother Nature strikes back at humanity for polluting the planet in Camille Griffin’s blackly humorous apocalyptic horror. Tidings of discomfort overflow deliciously when old school chums convene at a country house for a final Christmas together replete with roast turkey and charades before a toxic cloud wipes pernicious homo sapiens off the surface of the Earth for good…

Combining the nostalgic reminiscence of Peter’s Friends with the fantastical gloom of Lars von Trier’s end-of-the-world drama Melancholia, Silent Night ponders how each of us might respond to the promise of a slow, agonising death: by stoically carrying on and hoping the doom mongers are wrong or by actively taking precautions to slip away painlessly before the countdown to climate catastrophe hits zero. Birdy’s arrangement of the traditional carol Silent Night, which the Hampshire-born singer-songwriter performs as a haunting lament on the last breaths of wind before doomsday, is a suitably chilly accompaniment to the moral quandary.

Tonal shifts from mirthful to morose and macabre occasionally jar as writer-director Griffin witnesses the implosion of polite, privileged society through the eyes of a boy, who dares to question the reliability of public information and is openly furious at his parents for signing his death warrant. With so many characters to flesh out in just 90 minutes, the script operates at surface level for some of the assembled throng and the resolutions of their inner turmoil – an alcoholic trying to maintain sobriety, an expectant mother consumed by guilt about the prospect of killing her unborn child – feel rushed.

Nell (Keira Knightley) prepares a last supper for old school friends before a lethal gas cloud arrives. The government has prescribed suicide pills called Exit to every legal citizen and Nell and husband Simon (Matthew Goode) have sufficient quantities for their family including sons Art (Roman Griffin Davis), Hardy (Hardy Griffin Davis) and Thomas (Gilby Griffin Davis).

Sandra (Annabelle Wallis), husband Tony (Rufus Jones) and daughter Kitty (Davida McKenzie) are first to arrive, closely followed by Bella (Lucy Punch) and her clueless girlfriend Alex (Kirby Howell-Baptiste). Once doctor James (Sope Dirisu) and American girlfriend Sophie (Lily-Rose Depp) decant from his sports car, the prosecco flows and differences of opinion about suicide divide the guests. “I can’t do post-apocalyptic monochrome,” quips designer-labelled Bella.

Shot before Covid, Silent Night acquires unfortunate new layers of (mis)interpretation in the current climate of vaccine drives to keep pace with a mutating virus. The ensemble cast toss verbal grenades at each other with glee, conjuring the appearance of familiarity as years of suppressed frustration bubble to the surface like fizz in flutes of prosecco. Bottoms up as we all fall down.

– Sarah Lee