Gone in the Night

I like movies that keep you guessing until the very end and make me go WTF I never saw that coming. This is not one of those. Had this one figured out early on yet I kept hoping there would be a twist to prove me wrong. Nope. Come on, Winona Ryder, you can do better than this! Not much else very noteworthy to say about this movie but they don't like short and sweet reviews here so will keep typing until I meet the minimum character limit and that's not easy to do and it reminds me of trying to write a one page essay for school by using lots of filler words so let's just say I was very very disappointed.

It begins with a decent build up, buy slowly decends into absurdity. At the end, there is no end...no real dramatic resolution...it just ends and you wonder why you watched this. Just plain bad.

The first hour or so of this was intriguing. Normally I guess these types of mysteries but I was kept guessing. But the twist after the first hour was so over the top that it kind of ruined everything up to that point. The pros of this movie is that it did have a little bit of suspense and good acting of course by Winona and Dermot. The pacing was good and it was never boring. I also think the flashbacks and gradual unveiling of the twist was well done. I just think if they could have just had a better twist that was a little bit more plausible it would have bumped up at least a few stars. It was definitely a letdown. Some of the characters' actions were also unbelievable. When this happens it really just ruins the film for me. This is one of those movies that had promise but was a letdown towards the end.

This is a fun little movie. It's not the most clever mystery, but it's interesting enough that it didn't overstay its welcome (and I say that as someone who mostly figured it out fairly early). The flashback structure is hit or miss, sometimes giving you enough to make you more intrigued, and sometimes dispelling the tension it's already built. I knew absolutely nothing about the movie before I saw it, and I left happy to have seen it. It's nothing you'll be talking about weeks later, but it's an enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes.

Ryder may not have signed up for an award-winner in this one, but if you can hang on to the plot line long enough - it's a good kind of crazy turny. When her and her boyfriend show up at an Airbnb and find a couple already there, the backstory starts to play.