American Night – Sluggish Thriller
Director: Alessio Della Valle
Writer: Alessio Della Valle (Screenplay)
Starring: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Emile Hirsch, Paz Vega, Jeremy Piven, Fortunato Cerlino, Michael Madsen, Alba Amira, Anastacia
Plot: A courier carrying Andy Warhol’s famous “Pink Marilyn” arrives in New York City. Art and life collide – as John Kaplan tries to juggle the mob and his talent as an art forger with his love for Sarah Flores – and chaos ensues.
Runtime: 2 Hours 3 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: American Night starts as we meet art forger John Kaplan (Meyers) who has built up a reputation for find and selling the rarest pieces of art, while trying to go straight now. He meets Sara (Vega) who is in the business clean, but soon falls in love with her.
John will see his past catch up with him when Michael Rubino (Hirsch) comes searching for a piece he believes is his and he will do anything to get his property back.
Thoughts on American Night
Thoughts – American Night is a neo-noir thriller that branches out into plenty of different storylines per character, which takes away plenty of what we are watching. Each character involved does seem to have an honest side, before they show a more vicious side, with some of the most over-the-top acting you will see this year. Emile Hirsch is the worst for this, because during his calm sequences, we see him like a normal off tilt mob boss, but once he turns psycho, it turns comical. The strange decisions to make Jeremey Piven a down on his luck hard stuntman is weird, because his wise ass routine works well, but everything feels out of place. American Night is a movie that is trying to do so much more than it needs to, leading it to over complicate the most basic of things, leading to a story that feels long, doesn’t need to be this long and ends up falling flat in most places.
Final Thoughts – American Night is a thriller that never gets going, dragging along way too much.
