Journey to the End of the Night

"Journey To The End Of The Night" is a disappointment.

The plot: Paul (Fraser) is a pimp who lives in Brazil with his father Russo (Glenn). They have a drug deal planned. Their mule suddenly dies, and, desperate, Russo asks dishwasher Wemba (Def) to replace him. It doesn't go exactly as planned....

The whole movie feels rushed. Something must have been cut out because it feels disjointed. There's no way this movie is 85 minutes long. If it was 2 hours it would've been better. The actors are good however. Def impresses again with a good performance. Fraser goes a little over the top but it works for his character. Glenn is always worth watching.

If you like the actors, JTTEOTN is worth seeing, but overall it's a minor disappointment.

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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.

those are two words to describe this drama/thriller.when drugs and violence take over your life and you spiral out of control,there is no way out.that's the case with Paul(Brendan Fraser)who sees no future and nothing but despair.greed and(self)hatred are his best friends.Fraser puts in in an astounding performance here proving he really has some acting chops.Scott Glenn is also good as Sinatra,Paul's father.but by far,the best actor in my mind is Mos Def,who plays Wemba.he really loses himself in the role.there is a fair bit of very strong language and brutal violence in this film,so be warned.for me,Journey to the End of the Night is an 8/10