The Night Clerk - DVD

Movie: Bart Bromley (Tye Sheridan) is highly intelligent, yet a loner. His Asperger's syndrome makes it difficult for him to make friends. Only his mother (Helen Hunt) holds her protective hand over the young man. He spends his time observing the guests of the hotel where he works as a night porter with the help of secretly installed cameras and studying their behavior. When he witnesses a murder one night, Bart himself becomes the focus of the lead detective's (John Leguizamo) investigation. As the young man's life threatens to be thrown completely off course, a woman enters his life, the beautiful and sensitive Andrea (Ana de Armas), who establishes an unexpected closeness with him that Bart doesn't know how to handle at all.

Actor and filmmaker Michael Cristofer, most recently seen in the superb series "Mr. Robot", has directed "The Night Clerk", a quiet but very atmospheric thriller somewhat inspired by Sam Esmail's acclaimed series. Like Elliot Alderson in the series, Bart Bromley is a loner who finds it difficult to allow closeness. Both live in their very own worlds and have a penchant for technology, but this could be their undoing. There are two very noticeable differences, though: Cristofer's script unfortunately doesn't have nearly the cleverness and complexity that distinguished "Mr. Robot", and Rami Malek's acting was much more believable and nuanced than Tye Sheridan's.

The "X-Men" star, who was particularly convincing in dramas like "Mud" or "Joe - Vengeance is His", delivers an unfortunately very clichéd picture of a person with Asperger's here. Yet Sheridan's performance is anything but bad. You can tell that he tries very hard to give this character a special personality, but he doesn't really succeed, not least because of some script weaknesses. The other actors, like Ana de Armas ("Knives out", "James Bond - No Time to Die") or the always reliable John Leguizamo, also deliver solid performances. But again, it becomes clear that the real weakness of the film is its script.

This may sound quite negative now. But even if some dialogues could have been more polished and some aspects of the story could have been elaborated a bit more cleverly, "The Night Clerk" offers overall thrilling entertainment that can captivate its viewers until the very end despite the rather quiet narrative. For those who prefer atmosphere to fast-paced action and for whom the emotional level of the story is more important than the otherwise rather conventional thriller plot, this home movie premiere can definitely be recommended. Worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: Since only a stream was available for the test, no rating can be given here about the final picture and sound quality.

Extras: Also the bonus material could not be sighted. Announced are the two featurettes "The Story" and "Director`s Vision".

Conclusion: "The Night Clerk" is a very quietly and atmospherically told thriller that makes up for some, but not all, of the script weaknesses with its engaging underlying mood and effortful cast. Not a masterpiece, but solid entertainment for an entertaining home movie night.

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp