WHEN NIGHT IS FALLING
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1995 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 5.1
Canada, 1995 U.S. Availability: 11/95 (limited) Running Length: 1:34 MPAA Classification: No MPAA Rating (Sex, nudity, profanity) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Pascale Bussieres, Rachel Crawford, Henry Czerny, David Fox,
Don McKellar
Director: Patricia Rozema
Producer: Barbara Tranter
Screenplay: Patricia Rozema
Cinematography: Douglas Koch
U.S. Distributor: October Films
Symbolism isn't the only blatantly obvious aspect of Patricia Rozema's WHEN NIGHT IS FALLING, but it is the most distracting. Symbols are supposed to be subtle, but Rozema is intent upon bludgeoning the audience with them. In addition to the film's most pervasive symbol--a dead, refrigerated dog, there are trapeze artists, hang-gliders, and allusions to Cupid and Psyche. All have at least one secondary meaning.
The story is basically a romantic triangle between Camille (Pascale Bussieres), an emotionally uptight, morally upright mythology professor at a Toronto Protestant College; Martin (Henry Czerny), her lover of three years; and Petra (Rachel Crawford), an itinerant circus performer who comes to town and mesmerizes Camille. In addition to setting up a dichotomy between heterosexuality and homosexuality, WHEN NIGHT IS FALLING toys with the inherent conflict in a deeply religious woman whose sexual proclivities are in conflict with her beliefs. Unfortunately, Rozema's script doesn't do justice to these potentially charged issues, preferring cliches and shallow dialogue to something more challenging and compelling.
As is too often the case, Camille's religious convictions are shown to be a negative influence while Petra's open sensuality is positive. There's no middle ground here; it's all black-and-white. Likewise, Camille's relationship with Martin is pretty much a hollow sham. He represents the anchor that holds her back. On the other hand, her lesbian encounters with Petra are delightful and erotic. There's no depth to WHEN NIGHT IS FALLING; the script is too determined to categorize and compartmentalize everything.
Pascale Bussieres is appealing as Camille, doing her best to breathe life into a shallowly-drawn personae. The supporting cast is less impressive, however. Henry Czerny (CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER) is flat, although he can perhaps be forgiven since Martin is little more than a foil. Rachel Crawford, despite being pleasant and perky, hampers the film with her unpolished acting technique. And Don McKellar, who recently appeared in Atom Egoyan's EXOTICA, is annoying in the largely- superfluous role of the circus organizer.
WHEN NIGHT IS FALLING is a beautifully-filmed motion picture, but even the most glorious cinematography can't eclipse the story's flaws. Instead of plowing new ground, Rozema churns up soil that has long since been exhausted. All that's left are stock characters and situations, contrived emotional conflicts, and a slightly preachy narrative style. Like a postcard, WHEN NIGHT IS FALLING is pretty to look at but devoid of significant content.
- James Berardinelli (jberardinell@delphi.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