Lucy Punch is one of the funniest actresses working today, and that was made clear by her performance in Silent Night. A movie about the impending doom of the world doesn’t sound like a funny movie, and yet it is hilariously told through a group of friends trying to navigate their own fears, the fear of the children with them, and their own insecurities about the unknown. With incredible timing—eerily so, given that the movie was written and being filmed long before the pandemic hit—Camille Griffin brings to life the fears for the future that so many of us have.
Punch plays Bella, the “fun” friend who is always partying and the life of whatever room she’s in—someone who, for the most part, isn’t taking what’s happening that seriously. She doesn’t have kids, something everyone else at the party has something to say about, but she’s still clearly afraid of their imminent doom.
Talking with Punch about the movie, I brought up how the beginning of this movie feels like a typical holiday movie despite Silent Night being the complete opposite, and that is what brought Lucy Punch into the film in the first place: “If the movie continued as it started, we’d all have enjoyed it as well. It was a well-written, great, cozy, funny familiar Christmas film. And then I thought it was so unexpected and so exciting and the shift, although very dark, and I thought the themes and bigger ideas in the film were so interesting and I love that it somehow, despite this major twist, still maintained some of the comedy.”
And it does. One of the best parts of Silent Night comes from everyone dancing around and having a good time despite knowing that the destruction of everything they know is imminent. We all grieve in different ways, but the way this film handles the “distraction” of the end times is fascinating. The way the film feels is this very fragile balance between clinging to your loved ones for whatever time you have left mixed with people frantically trying to hold on to memories and laughter. And filming this prior to the world shutting down with the threat of the pandemic looming over them, I asked whether or not Punch found those scenes cathartic in a way.
“Yeah, I mean it was really fun shooting those scenes and completely exhausting. And we, ourselves, were getting more manic and tired as we kept on shooting it but I love how they’ve been edited into the film,” Punch said. “They feel absolutely desperate.”
You can see my full interview with Lucy Punch below!
Silent Night is now in theaters and on AMC+. It isn’t your typical holiday flick, but it is well worth the watch!
(image: RLJE films)
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