by Shane Conto, Staff Writer
What is the worst feeling in the world when watching a film? The film delivers a compelling hook at the start… then just goes completely off the rails from there. The opening and ending of a film are so hard to stick to that it makes it even worse when the opening scenes work so well, but the rest of the film does not rise to the occasion. Intrigue sets in and mystery engulfs you for the resolution to be completely unsatisfying. Unfortunately, that is exactly the case for Eli Horowitz’s Gone in the Night.
How does Horowitz hook his audience to start? There is a turn that takes place at the beginning of the film. When a couple (Winona Ryder and John Gallagher Jr.) arrive at their isolated rental cabin, there is already a couple in the home (Owen Teague and Brianne Tju). They agree to cohabitate, but in the end, Gallagher Jr. and Tju have run off together. Ryder is upset and wants to confront Tju and winds up recruiting the owner of the cabin Dermot Mulroney, who is a tech genius trying to start a new life. Seems like a potentially intriguing set up for a thriller. If only it continued the right type of energy.
But where does Horowitz’s film go wrong? You will probably not see where this film is going (which is honestly a positive in today’s day and age). The issue? This story makes no sense and is purely unbelievable. There are few films with plots that turn out to be so unsatisfying as this one. There are so many twists and turns along the way that you’ll give up after a while when the tension gives way to contrived ideas. When the dust settles down, you are not sure how to look at the results, and nobody seems to be worth fighting for to begin with.
How does this screenplay attempt to up the ante for this mystery? With many threads at play, you need to find balance in the narrative and storytelling. Unfortunately, Horowitz struggles with any semblance of reason as the film shifts from some type of romance to a full-blown conspiracy thriller. The tone is all over the place, and the film does a bad job of building intrigue with its grand reveal. There is not enough evidence to build suspense, but instead it only shows shock for the sake of shock with ideas too grand for basic plotting that led up to this point. There were quite a few ways to take the film that would have felt like a satisfying arc, but Gone in the Night does not follow any of them. Even Ryder’s character is yelling about how little the story makes sense come the third act.
But could this cast do anything to salvage this film? Ryder and Mulroney have tons of chemistry together and probably could have sold a film much more focused on a budding connection. For a while, this grief of relationships lost and hopeful for news has taken over for a while. But these performers feel overshadowed by the shock value delivered in the film. Gallagher Jr. and Ryder on the other hand sell this tumultuous relationship which may or may not influence others.
When the credits roll, was this one worth it? This is quite the frustrating experience. The film grabs you at the start and offers up a solid hook and connections to interest you. Unfortunately, the narrative takes the audience and the protagonist into a wave and uncharted territory that lacks focus or intrigue. Some strong performances cannot make up for the fact that this film just didn’t amount to much at all (except for some frustration).
Grade: 4/10
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