Last Night

Joanna (Keira Knightley) and Michael's (Sam Worthington) marriage seems perfect. The well-off, attractive couple has been married for three years and they enjoy every moment they get to spend together. But all it takes is one night for that happiness to be called into question. While Michael finds himself exposed to the advances of his attractive colleague Laura (Eva Mendes) on a business trip and becomes more and more sexually attracted to her, Joanna meets her French ex-boyfriend Alex (Guillaume Canet) again. Over dinner and a subsequent party, old feelings resurface and Joanna's emotional world is thrown into complete disarray. And even if at first it was she who doubted her husband's fidelity, she now has to admit to herself that she can't be entirely sure of her own feelings either...

"Last Night" is a chamber-play-like love story that can best be compared to the Julia Roberts vehicle "Hautnah". At times, as a viewer, you also have the feeling that you are watching a play rather than a feature film. Extended dialogues dominate the action and only the beautifully photographed locations make you forget that you are not sitting in a theatre here. The question that director and screenwriter Massy Tadjedin raises in her relationship story is truly not uninteresting. Is a one-night stand, which has more to do with sexual desire than love, worse than allowing feelings to resurface for a past love? Are both an unforgivable betrayal of the partner? Or can such situations perhaps even provide a way to become truly aware of the intensity of one's relationship and love for one's partner?

Lived through by four attractive actors, "Last Night" at least presents itself as a pretty-looking romantic drama. But as handsome as the actors are and as comprehensible as the situations they go through on this one night are, the film lacks any real dramaturgical tension. The dialogues are, as just as in "Hautnah", not very clever and there are only a few moments in which the viewer is offered more than just cultivated boredom. Because even though the film is only a relatively short 90 minutes long, constant chatter can drag out such a short period of time uncomfortably. Especially when the dialogue keeps going in circles and the action doesn't really move forward.

And unfortunately, that's the case here. Were it not for the fine cast, "Last Night" could easily be dismissed as a total flop. It's thanks to the committed and quite passionate acting of the protagonists that the viewer can at least form some emotional attachment to the characters. Especially "Avatar"-star Sam Worthington gets to show that he can also convince outside the action or fantasy genre. But even engaging actors can only save a movie so much. The bottom line is that "Last Night" is nothing more than a bubble wrapped in classy visuals that bursts far too quickly, leaving the viewer with a strange emotional void. And therefore the film is actually only for fans of the main actors quite still worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp