Les colocataires

My review was written in April 1993 after watching the film in a Times Square screening room.

A quintessential New York movie, "The Night We Never Met" takes a novel premise and develops it in fits and starts. A guaranteed crowd-pleaser on its home turf, episodic effort could attract a hip audience elsewhere as well.

Debuting filmmaker Warren Leight has come up with an offbeat notion: time-sharing a Greenwich Village apartment by days of the week (practice exists, but is hardly a trend). Hissable yuppie Kevin Anderson is behind the scheme, wanting two nights out a week with his poker-playing, football watching buddies while living with patrician fiancee Justine Bateman.

One customer is Matthew Broderick, moping over losing his performance artist girlfriend Pastel (Jeanne Tripplehorn, spoofing a familiar downtown type). Broderick is sharing a flat with too many noisy, vulgar roommates and needs a crash pad.

Third tenant is frustrated housewife Annabella Sciorra, who uses it to get away from her dense husband (Michael Mantell) and spend a couple of days painting.

This format allows Leight to develop some surefire situation comedy. The three tenants never met but are aware of their differing habits: boorish slob Anderson leaves a mess each time; Sciorra fixes up pretty curtains and furnishings; Broderick is a gourmet cook (he works in an upscale food store) who provides fabulous leftovers for Sciorra.

Plot is set in motion when Anderson innocently switches one of his designated days with Broderick but doesn't update the posted schedule, causing Sciorra to confuse the two guys, swearing at Broderick over the phone for leaving a mess and fixing her sights on a romance with "dream guy" Anderson.

Finale has the threesome of nearly 30-year-olds finally meeting in the apartment, but not until after Sciorra has slept with Anderson, almost ruining her life, and further complications when (predictably) fiancee Batemean half-learns of the apartment and assumes Anderson carries on all week long.

Wonderfully atmospheric use of New York locations and familiar characters bring "Night" to life. Unfortunately, there are many scenes, particularly those of Anderson and his obnoxious pals, which kill time and detract from the romantic leads. Ultimately it's not really as much an ensemble piece as a film of alternating casts or vignettes.

Broderick, making a notable screen comeback after his laughless "Out on a Limb" fiasco, is utterly convincing as the hapless hero. Sciorra immediately garners sympathy, giving the film some heart and depth beyond the surface yocks. Anderson throws himself whole-heartedly into his stereotyped assignment.

Garry Shandling pops up uncredited as a wiseguy patient of dental hygienist Sciorra, while Christine Baranski is perfect as Sciorra's best friend.

Lensin gby John Thomas (who photographed Gotham-set "Metropolitan") is sharp and Evan Lurie's sprightly score is a definite asset.

Great performances highlight this small story, which has a great hook and some forgivable flaws. The main themes of communication and isolation are given time to flesh themselves out in three separate stories that center around a shared apartment. I like the pacing in this film, it's slow enough to wrap itself around the story, but not so slow as to drag.

The three main female characters are all good, especially Tripplehorn as Pastel, the avant-garde artist and pseudo girlfriend of Broderick. I've never seen her do any better with a character. Broderick has a curious role to play as a man who is tolerant of others up to a point (like his view of Sciorra's illogical behavior), but still has the serenity to offer marital advice to a woman who has just put him through a frustrating case of coitus interruptus. Sciorra's character is more problematic - she has a definite fear-aggression streak that gets tempered somewhat by the end, but there's also a good deal of "tough chick" bravado in her performance that makes it interesting.

I wasn't completely convinced by all of the transformations in the final ten minutes of the movie, but it ties things up neatly enough so you don't feel cheated and leaves enough room for the characters to grow further after the final shot.

"What are you, Camus?"

Such an Allenesque line, and when you spot Woody's ex-wife Louise Lasser in a supporting role, and a kooky French female character messing our hero Sam (Matthew Broderick) about...well, the movie rings a few NYC bells.

An interesting premise, in both senses of the spelling. Three people, who don't know each other, all in personal life predicaments, have alternate days renting an apartment. One is a lovelorn cheesemonger (really), another is a dissatisfied dental hygienist (again, that's very Woody), and the third is an oafish city boy on the cusp of marriage, unwilling to give up his bachelor lifestyle altogether. Two of them start leaving cute messages and stuff for one another, but mistaken identity leads to a confused situation.

New York plays its own part in these movies. New York movies are practically a genre unto themselves. This is a cute but slight movie, and its peculiar premise gives it distinction in the rom-com field. One just wishes it were funnier, and maybe one more character with a stronger screen presence. The fact that the three alternating tenants never run into one another, at least before the denouement, seems improbable.

But definitely worth checking out.

Mildly entertaining comedy about a threesome timesharing a New York City apartment, but never meet. Broderick is the standout as a fed-up cheese clerk at an upscale grocery store.

While the film itself is barely worth a watch on cable, I thought it was interesting that the movie had no less than three (3!) future Sopranos cast members in roles varying from starring (Anabella Sciorra) to supporting (Dominic Chianese) to walk on (Michael Imperioli). David Chase definitely saw potential in all of these actors, so it's sad to see that the movie really wasted Sciorra's talents...

"The Night We Never Met" tells of three people, all in relationships, who timeshare a NYC flat with a weekly rotation. The trio has not met but do get to know each other by leaving notes, phone calls, and the inevitable traces of their occupancy which, of course, leads to romance between principals Sciorra and Broderick. A cute little bit of B- fluff which is well cast with a clever premise, "Night..." muddles a little in the middle, runs a tad long, and could have ended better. Nonetheless, it's worth a look. Now on cable.