THE NIGHT WE NEVER MET
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1993 James Berardinelli
Rating: 6.7 (C, **)
Date Released: 4/30/93 Running Length: 1:39 Rated: R (Sexual situations, nudity, language)
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Annabella Sciorra, Kevin Anderson,
Jeanne Tripplehorn, Justine Bateman
Director: Warren Leight
Producer: Michael Peyser
Screenplay: Warren Leight
Music: Evan Lurie
Released by Miramax Films
Sam (Matthew Broderick) has just broken up with his girlfriend Pastel (Jeanne Tripplehorn). Nursing a broken heart and needing a place to spend a couple of nights a week away from the madness of an apartment that he occupies with several friends, he agrees to time-share a Greenwich Village brownstone with three other people. Also living there is Ellen (Annabella Sciorra), a married woman looking for a place where she can paint without ridicule from her husband, and Brian (Kevin Anderson), a man unwilling to completely let go of his bachelor's ways despite an upcoming wedding. These three never meet, but by way of notes passed between Sam and Ellen, an unusual attraction develops. When Ellen mistakes one of her apartment-mates for the other and decides to embark on an extra-marital affair with him, Brian--not Sam--becomes the object of her advances.
This film, despite countless problems, is actually kind of cute. The coupling of Sciorra and Broderick is unusual, but it works--at least for the few minutes when it's shown on-screen. Romantic comedies are often riddled with plot flaws, and THE NIGHT WE NEVER MET is an exceptional offender. It would take an inattentive and gullible viewer to accept everything that happens during the course of this picture.
There may be an original element or two in the story, but most of what's here has been covered by numerous TV sitcoms (not a good place to draw from for a major motion picture). For THE NIGHT WE NEVER MET to work, the script needs to be scintillating, and it's far from that. Not only are there many plot holes, but the pacing is all wrong. The movie takes an incredibly long time to get moving, plodding through useless setup material. In trying to tease the audience, the film drags and we start to lose patience, since it's obvious what the eventual goal is.
Without exception, every character is taken from stock--plain stereotypes found littering mediocre-to-bad movies. Even the "unusual" supporting players are little more than typical Hollywood fare. For the most part, the acting isn't good enough to allow any standouts. Only Annabella Sciorra's Ellen has personality, and that's exclusively because of a fine performance by the actress; her character is no better written than any of the others.
People who are addicted to romantic comedies will find something to like in this movie. Others will likely regard this as a light-but-pointless film that is tedious more often than enjoyable. There's nothing about THE NIGHT WE NEVER MET that will drive people away in droves, but there's little to attract them either.
Note: in response to some requests, all movie reviews written by me may be reprinted provided that they carry the following notification: "Copyright 1993 by James Berardinelli".
- James Berardinelli (blake7@cc.bellcore.com)
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews