El lado oscuro de la noche

The pacing is good, the violence serves the plot, and is not over the top. The camera work isn't flashy, and distracting from the story. The lead female is absolutely beautiful, I've seen her else where, will look it up later.

Action and gore folks stay away.....

I wish there were movies made along this style these days......

PS fellow reviewers, I don't think rehashing the whole story is needed.. That said, I felt very misled by some of the reviews here, I almost didn't watch the movie, glad I did. The Noir analogies made me want to give it a try.....Long live Noir........

In a dark and decadent area of São Paulo, the exiled Americans Sinatra (Scott Glenn) and his son Paul (Brendan Fraser) own a brothel. Paul is a compulsive gambler addicted in cocaine and his father is married with the former prostitute Angie (Catalina Sandino Moreno), and they have a little son. When a client is killed by his wife in their establishment, they find a suitcase with drugs. In the night that they have scheduled a negotiation with African buyers, their African liaison dies while having sex with the travesty Nazda (Matheus Nachtergaele). Sinatra proposes to the Nigerian dishwasher of the brothel, Wemba (Mos Def), to travel to the harbor of Santos, close the business with the drug dealers and in return he would receive a large amount. Wemba accepts but while returning to his car in the harbor, he is attacked by two smalltime thieves and passes out. His lack of contact with Sinatra and Paul leads to a sequence of misunderstandings with a tragic end.

"Journey to the End of the Night" is a movie about losers that have a second chance in life, but waste it along a night of entwined mistakes. None of the characters is totally evil, they are ambiguous and develop a sort of empathy with the viewer. Scott Glenn plays an owner of a brothel, but also a family man concerned with the future of his son. The addicted and violent character of Brendan Fraser has a deep trauma from his childhood. Angie, played by Catalina Sandino Moreno, is divided between Sinatra and Paul. Wemba, played by Mos Def, is a simple honest worker that accepts to participate in a dirty business to raise easy money. The excellent Brazilian actor Matheus Nachtergaele performs a travesty in a key role. Watching this film somehow I slightly recalled "After Hours", a comedy of errors in New York. The lighting uses weird colors (yellow, red, green) and together with the bad weather, highlights the underworld of a poor and dark area in the cold São Paulo, in a film-noir style. The story is predictable, there are many coincidences, but I liked this movie. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "12 Horas Até o Amanhecer" ("12 Hours Until Dawn")

The film is a second feature by a director who had a film at Tribeca a few years ago which i never saw. This is a gritty pot boiler made in Brazil with an eclectic mix of famous faces and non-professional actors. The film is extremely violent but not without a soul. I particularly applaud Brendan Fraser for a stellar turn as the Bad Guy. Here is a part that he might well be remember for in years to come. Also very good is Scott Glenn and Mos Def. My favorite aspect of the film was the film score which was very emotional. I give it a solid 7 for those that like crime films. Beware there is a lot of blood in this one.

I also watched the film at Tribeca and found it as a whole work to be interesting and entertaining. Sure there were flaws in the film itself but in total I enjoyed the camera work, the colors and the actors. I didn't have a problem with any of the actors on the screen. I thought Brandon Fraser was cast in a role that he normally doesn't play but that didn't take away from the movie if anything it added to it. He definitely had a presence on the screen as did Scott. The characters were also justified in their actions. Don't get me wrong there were flaws in the film I just felt that they were minimal. I went in expecting to watch a film that wasn't going to be very good and I ended up seeing something that I though was entertaining and interesting. The main character was not Brazil, there are movies where the city is the main character and the actors are there to move it along. This was very much character based film.

Just came back from the premiere in the Tribeca Film Fest, and I must say I am very disappointed. I was looking forward to this film as it includes great American and Brazilian talent involved, but it all seemed wasted.

The audience in general did not seemed thrilled by the movie. An unexciting Q and A followed the screening and even the actor themselves (especially Mos Def) did not seem to be very interested in discussing the movie.

The plot is over the top, full of holes. The movie does not strike a balance between in gritty reality and supernatural elements. Many shockers (she-male sex scene, gore) only disgust, but do not add the the narrative power of the movie. Characters jump in and out of scenes without any development and explanation. Unintentional laughs all along the screening.

The city of Sao Paulo, Brazil was poorly used. It could have been just any other poor area in a third world country. Little do people know, the city is a megalopolis with much to be explored, but the filmmakers just used it for shock value. It is a poorly executed portrayal of a complex city. They could have very much used a sound stage.

The actors are obviously very talented, yet ultimately miscast. Brendan Fraser tries hard, but he is not born to play an asshole role. It just came over as over the top and preposterous. Scott Glenn was solid, as was Catalina. Mos Def is the standout though.

The filmmakers do not seem very confident of what language they want to use. While I appreciate the fact that locals spoke Portuguese with subtitles, even English speaking main characters every once in a while changed their language whilst in the middle of dialogue. It sounds phony, rehearsed and plainly sucks.

The plot attempts and Tarantino-esquire mish mash of characters that somehow inter wine - but they are so poorly developed that everything seems silly and point out to holes in the plot.

Believe me, I was looking forward to this and tried very hard to like it. If you are interested in gritty dramas about Brazilian suburbs, rent City of God, Central Station, heck, Mango Yellow instead.

TOO MUCH WASTED TALENT, and honestly, I blame on the director. This had a lot of potential. Gritty cinematography is of high quality though.