1/5 Catastrophic. A terrible
film. Ineptly conceived and executed, it's almost impossible to imagine any audience
getting anything out of this.
2/5 Poor. A bad film. You should only really sit though this if you’re a big fan of an associated actor or director, otherwise,
skip it.
3/5 Decent. A good film. Entertaining enough, but is either deeply flawed or simply lacks anything to make
it outstanding.
4/5 Recommended. A very strong
film. Highly recommended, particularly to genre fans, but which has some minor
problems.
5/5 Exceptional. One of the
finest of its kind. A film that should be recommended to any movie lover.
Heart of Midnight
Dir: Matthew Chapman
Cast: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Peter Coyote, Frank Stallone
Carol Rivers (Leigh) inherits a club - the Midnight from her uncle. She takes it as an opportunity to make
a break from her life, thus far plagued with mental health problems. She moves into the apartment above the club, intending
to re-open. Her plans are derailed when she's attacked in her flat and into her life comes Sharpe (Coyote), a detective who
seems have known Carol's uncle and may be able to offer answers to the weird things that have been happening in the apartment
since she moved in.
Artsploitation. That's probably what writer/director Matthew Chapman wants critics to call this film. He's
taken an exploitation movie script (and, frankly, not a great one) and shot it as an arthouse film, no wonder the resulting
film is very odd and flounders in obscurity.
There are a couple of things that make Heart of Midnight rise
above the level of most DTV dreck. First is Chapman's direction, okay it's self-consciously arty, and not a little pretentious,
but in conjunction with his production designer he throws up some intriguing images, the use of colour particularly striking
as Carol explores the many rooms in her new apartment, finding a new and disturbing theme in each.
The great strength of the film comes though from star Jennifer Jason Leigh. As Carol she's terrific, even
when Chapman's script puts the most hackneyed and unbelievable dialogue in her mouth (which, sadly, is on pretty much every
line) she manages to give it weight and a measure of reality. Much of this is
likely down to her customary preparation, which involved talking with both therapists and women who had suffered childhood
abuse. Leigh’s down turned mouth gives her the appearance of a sad porcelain
doll; this suits her damaged character down to the ground but she also finds strength in Carol and makes it believable that
the character would find it in herself. It's a performance leagues better than the film deserves.
Sadly the only other real points of interest, outside of the visuals are in spotting slumming actors (look;
Steve Buscemi as a rapist) and in wondering just what the hell Chapman is actually trying to say with this picture. The supporting
cast is generally woeful. Peter Coyote gives a bored and boring performance,
and his relationship with Leigh never works, while Frank Stallone is so bad it’s almost amusing – picture Sylvester
Stallone without the speech impediment, or the modicum of talent.
As interesting as Heart of Midnight is to look at, and as fantastic
as Leigh’s performance is, the film never really takes off. It can’t
overcome the fundamental weakness, and overbearing pretentiousness, of Chapman’s screenplay. It’s not helped by the addition of Yanni’s awful score; a hectoring thing that feels like having
someone shouting at you about how you should be feeling in every scene.
It’s a shame that Chapman hasn’t directed in the twenty years since moviegoers summarily ignored
Heart of Midnight, because that’s clearly where his talent lies, rather than
in writing (see, or rather don’t, Colour of Night) and for all its many problems
this film remains an intriguing failure, and an essential for Jennifer Jason Leigh fans.
Film: 2/5
JJL: 4/5
