![]() ![]() (Ant-Man), Dermot Mulroney (The Grey, Mozart in the Jungle), Scoot McNairy (Batman Vs Superman, Argo) and David Harbour (Suicide Squad, End Of Watch).ĭirected by Baran Bo Odar from a script written by Andrea Berloff, the film will hit theaters on February 24, 2017.īased on the 2011 French film “Nuit Blanche,” the movie centers on cop with a connection to the criminal underworld who scours a nightclub in search of his kidnapped son. ![]() But with some decent cinematography, and Foxx perspiring and straining for all he’s worth, it should be noted that, while Sleepless does collapse, it at least collapses in style.Open Road Films has released the poster and the trailer to its upcoming crime drama thriller, ‘ Sleepless,’ starring Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained, White House Down), Michelle Monaghan (Mission: Impossible III, Gone Baby Gone), Gabrielle Union (Top Five, Bad Boys II), rapper T.I. ![]() Sleepless, then, is the very definition of a thriller that collapses like a house of cards. Going up a lift to the top floor, then going back down again to the ground floor. Getting into fights, escaping from the fights, then getting back into fights with the same person again. Its cops and gangsters are doomed to keep running to and fro, putting things in lockers and then taking those things back out of lockers. After a while, the setting begins to feel less like a casino and more like the Overlook Hotel in The Shining: an inescapable place where all natural laws are suspended. The only actor who really seems to be enjoying himself is David Harbour, who’s clearly aware that Sleepless is a bit of a pot-boiler.Įven at a focused 95 minutes, Sleepless starts to feel longer than it is – probably because so much time is spent following the same characters run round the same locations. McNairy, after a decent villain’s introduction, has a similarly thankless role to Monaghan his cries of “Where are my drugs?” are the film’s predictable refrain. Monaghan, who’s initially good value as a cop who’s just come off a bruising case-gone-wrong, just looks confused and annoyed by the middle of the movie – probably because the script has her standing in a casino lounge and waiting for something to do for far so long. Foxx, all sweat and increasingly grubby clothes, gives his cornered hero a distancing, bullish quality. The outlandishness wouldn’t necessarily matter if Sleepless had the self-awareness of, say, a decent Jason Statham film, but the movie’s largely played straight by its leads. The action escalates, as you might expect, but only in its outlandishness – what begins as a thriller set in what feels like the real Las Vegas soon detaches itself from reality so completely that your humble writer half expected a flying saucer to land in the final act. Sleepless is one of those thrillers that requires its characters to do illogical things in order to keep the story on track – vital items are grabbed and then lost again, villains are ruthlessly efficient and absurdly careless the next. The plot, meanwhile, conspires to undo all that tension within the space of a few minutes. The filmmaking which underpins Sleepless‘ inciting incidents – the initial stash grab, Vincent’s stab to the gut – is crisp and urgent, and suggests that we’re in for a terse, intense slab of action and intrigue. Some unconvincing blue-screen driving sequences aside, Sleepless looks great, thanks to cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr, the chap who made Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master look so lavish. Sleepless is directed by Switzerland’s Baran bo Odar, and the movie initially looks like a solid calling card for a filmmaker making his American debut (Odar’s previous film was the successful Who Am I from 2014). Everything seems set for a high-stakes showdown… until pretty much at the mid-point, everything clatters to the ground. There’s Vincent, who shows up in the hope of getting his son back the establishment’s dodgy owner, Rubino (Dermot Mulroney), a phalanx of gangsters led by the scrawny, crazed-looking Novak (Scoot McNairy), plus Bryant and her sarcastic partner, Doug (David Harbour, out of Stranger Things). All of this builds to the meat of the thriller: a lengthy game of cat-and-mouse in a Vegas casino. ![]()
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