I have absolutely no other reason for choosing to watch this little film other than it sounded interesting
I love talky films where you Know something is up but you just can't figure out what, and this film pulls that off perfectly.
The film starts off filling in a little back story of all the characters, how they end up being at the diner, and establishing just enough of their characters as we need to set the scene.
And onto the scene, set in a pretty standard diner in American, in the early hours of the morning, almost puts me in mind of that painting "Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper, put in the present day, maybe that's where writer/director Jay Kanzler picked up his core inspiration? So that's the scene set, now the players.
Working the night shift in the diner we have the chef (Eddie, a young War Vet played by Dingani Beza) and the waitress (Sheila, played Jilanne Klaus), the patrons include a middle aged couple trying to fix a struggling marriage, a young couple who are on the edge of a crime spree, and our mysterious couple, an older man, who has no regard for others (Played by Eric Roberts) and younger girl, who has a secret (Played by Nia Peeples) Now all these characters all have their own story lines through most of this film, they occasionally play off each other but they are essentially separate, and all the little stories are interesting to see play out, all the while establishing their characters. Then we have the the mysterious couple, I can't say much about them without giving the story away but it's clear from early on that there is something more than normal happening within their little story.
Now this is a short film, only 1 hour and 18 minutes long, but I'm thankful for that, I really think writer/director Kanzler got the length of this movie perfect for all the different characters to develop and their stories to fill out and eventually converge in what I felt was a really powerful and intense ending.
A very well written, stylish, and for the most part, well acted film, why I say "for the most part" is because there were a few scenes that I felt either the acting talent was wavering, or they were struggling with a line that could be seen by some folks as being a little bit corny. Now don't let this put you off the film, as I said, it was well acted for the most part, and having one or two cringes for the occasional corny line is worth it to see how the full story plays out.
Well worth a watch by the talky fans out there.
