Last Night (2010)

Directed by: Massy Tadjedin | 90 minutes | drama, romance | Actors: Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes, Guillaume Canet, Anson Mount, Stephanie Romanov, Griffin Dunne, Scott Adsit, Daniel Eric Gold, Stephen Mailer, Justine Cotsonas, Rae Ritke, Chriselle Almeida, Zach Poole, Christian Lorentzen

The American drama ‘Last Night’ is not based on a play.

It seems like a superfluous opening sentence, but anyone who sees Massy Tadjedin’s debut knows better. The lack of action, the emphasis on dialogue, the limited number of locations and the short time span in which the story takes place: everything points in the direction of an edited theater piece. Moreover, ‘Last Night’ has a striking resemblance to a play that was made into a film in 2004: ‘Closer’.

Like ‘Closer’, ‘Last Night’ deals with the relationship troubles of four young adults. Project developer Michael has an exciting night with his attractive colleague Laura, wife Joanna goes out the same night with a former lover. And as the night progresses, the conversations become more personal and infidelity hangs in the air, it becomes clear to the viewer that concepts such as relationships, fidelity and cheating are less unambiguous than you might expect.

It makes for a fascinating film that relies on strong dialogues and good acting. There is a lot of non-verbal communication where the non-verbal sometimes contradicts the verbal. Like in real life. You may expect that Keira Knightley excels in acting, but less expected is the strong performance of Eva Mendes.

The downside is the lack of humor and the lack of variety in themes and motifs. All conversations revolve around relationships, which is too much even for a relatively short film like ‘Last Night’. A little more variety would give the conversations air, and immediately give the characters more relief. Only Joanna’s writing is sometimes mentioned, but that writing is one big cliché: like 20,000 other movie characters, Joanna writes magazine articles but is actually an extremely talented novelist.

Nevertheless, Massy Tadjedin has delivered an intelligent and emotional film with ‘Last Night’, which only narrowly loses the comparison with ‘Closer’. An audience that liked ‘Closer’ and, for example, also appreciates the light relationship dramas of Edward Burns, will certainly enjoy ‘Last Night’.

Now just waiting for the stage adaptation.