Being a fan of Gwyneth Paltrow and Penelope Cruz, seeing the neat looking poster, and having an interest in the exploration of dreams in films, I decided to give The Good Night a try. Little did I know the nightmare that would become the next hour of my life. The Good Night has an inadequate exposition; it's a poorly introduced and explained film that flatlines for the first hour. If The Good Night would've supplied the theaters showing it with sleeping masks like 3D movies handing out glasses, it would've been a more enjoyable night out.
I love watching films about our dreams. When filmmakers make us think about our subconscious when we rest and the truths we realize about ourselves are extremely interesting to me. The only truth Martin Freeman learns about his dreams until the third act is how much he wants to have sex with Penelope Cruz. The storyline of the film doesn't warrant the film's existence. The Good Night tries to comment on a mid-life crisis, but inaccurately musters up a conventional, musty representation of one.
The simple thoughts the filmmakers built the film on could've been the starting point of intriguing ideas, but instead feel like they were tomatoes, cut in half, placed on hot pavement, under the sun on the hottest day of the year. Every idea is dried up and are roasted by the lack of effort. The first hour contains some really awful dialogue on top of the lack of development behind the plot. The person who designed Gwyneth Paltrow's character's look should've been fired, her unflattering hair is the thing I focused on most of her screen time due to lack of interest in The Good Night's third-rate production.
A thought that I literally squealed out of my mouth during The Good Night was "How did this script and director attract this cast?" The cast is not as ghastly as the rest of the film. Gwyneth Paltrow actually delivers a few great scenes throughout and the film finally begins to wake up when Penelope Cruz's character is not just a figment of the imagination anymore, Cruz is much to thank for the film's kick in the ass to at least shift out of reverse. The one upside of the script is the occasional sincere quotes about life. The Good Night does begin to look up in the last half hour. It finally starts to dig deeper into the Paltrow-Freeman relationship, I began to feel this trip wasn't completely waste of my time.
When I was watching The Good Night I had no clue who the director was that I was throwing insults at in my head. After finishing, I was informed it was none other than Gwyneth Paltrow's brother, Jake Paltrow. When the talent was being divvied up in the family, it's clear Jake wasn't given the fair amount. The Good Night is poorly made and dreadfully thought up, though the film's last act begins to rectify the harm of the first hour, there's no salvaging the departed film. The bottom line is, The Good Night shouldn't have been telling us how to have a mid-life crisis, it should've been living one. It's unmistakably obvious The Good Night isn't even as deep as the paper in which its script has been typed on.
Rating: 4
Grade: C-
