Silent Night is proudly left field, opening with Michael Bublé and closing with enigmatic bleakness. Director Camille Griffin utilises her cast and children to full effect but her tonal balancing will prove divisive. 

For me the airtight tonal breaching didn’t work, the inanely uneasy underlying tone obstructed the film’s attempt at comedy. Touching specifically on the comedy, it’s not very funny, the characters are intentionally insufferable. It was very difficult to indulge in the presence of these characters previous to the tone being properly established, watching ghastly posh people swear isn’t as enlightening as was aspired. The comedic sensibilities of the film particularly struggle in the final act when the films existence is truly altered. The final act can feel out of touch but Griffin directs commandingly enough for the concept to work. 

The ensemble is well assembled, Roman Griffin Davies is perfect in his role, Keira Knightly is very good and Matthew Goode who I usually don’t like was solid as the Father in the family. Despite the script’s lack of balance and underwhelming comedic timing, it’s clearly calculated well enough for the film to not be a total disaster. The films final proposition works well but the film generally isn’t strong enough in any of its narrative departments to work as a whole.