"Take the Night" is a new crime drama that follows two rivaling brothers who must set aside their beef and takedown a motley crew of criminals that stole a family heirloom during a botched abduction.
This film is bad. Here are 13 reasons where I think the film went wrong.
1. Seth McTigue. He co-wrote the screenplay, leads the cast, co-produced this film and directed it. This is his first feature film credit. He was too involved in this project and needed some distance from it to understand what works and doesn't.
2. The story meanders. There's a subplot surrounding one of the antiheroes, which was more compelling than the main plot and the main characters. He's a former basketball star who's food insecure and robbing as a means to eat. That was more compelling than a jealous brother hiring the wrong criminals to kidnap his brother as a sick prank.
3. The pacing is belabored and so incremental to the point that the viewer is inundated with unnecessary information, which doesn't move the story along. It takes 36 minutes to get to the inciting incident- the actual abduction.
4. The performances were weak. The actors stare aimlessly as if they're reaching for their lines.
5. The dialogue is amateurish. Lines are redundant, reiterating action that is already descriptive. Over-explaining conveys that the writer doesn't trust the audience to understand what's happening onscreen.
6. The stunts are sloppy. And not just the choreography, but the editing of the stunts are blunt and choppy.
7. Speaking of editing - some scenes are too short and break abruptly. Other scenes are too long and float like segments.
8. Cinematography. The camera gets shaky - not purposely like a steadicam in action sequences, but uncontrollably shaking during dialogue heavy scenes. The camera lands on characters and lingers even when they aren't the subject.
9. The characters are flat and one-dimensional and there are too many of them to follow. Their backstory is cheapened by flashing back to their respective childhoods. The viewer is given more info about arbitrary characters than about the main brothers. And, their backstory doesn't make you root for them as dual protagonists. The former basketball player's backstory has more dramatic tension that makes the viewer care. And characters are introduced that serve no purpose in the story. Wasted on scenes that don't drive the story at all.
10. The lighting is gloomy. The location shots are too inky and shadowy.
11. The score is too loud and domineering to the point that it tries to carry the load of the performances to drive the dramatic tension, which was irritating.
12. The concept isn't original. I think they were going for David Fincher's THE GAME but the build-up to the action fizzles because too much time is wasted on irrelevant plot points, dead-end storylines and under-developed characters.
13. Finally, the Title. It has nothing to do with nothing.
TAKE THE NIGHT is a masterclass in bad filmmaking. It's imperative to take some distance and not have your hands in all the pots so that you have objectivity without compromising your creativity.
