Journey to the End of the Night (2006)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Eric Eason

Writer (WGA):

Eric Eason (written by)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

You can escape anything but your destiny.

Plot:

The tale of a son and his father separately plotting to escape the desolation of their lives in the lurid underworld of Brazil's sex industry...

Plot Keywords:

Infidelity | Corpse | Fall From Window | Shot In The Chest | Fall Off Balcony

Cast

Brendan Fraser	...	Paul
Mos Def	...	Wemba
Scott Glenn	...	Sinatra
Alice Braga	...	Monique
Catalina Sandino Moreno	...	Angie
Ruy Polanah	...	The Soothsayer
Matheus Nachtergaele	...	Nazda
Gilson Adalberto Gomes	...	Samy
Milhem Cortaz	...	Rodrigo
Luke Denis Nolan	...	Lazare
Antonio Pinto	...	Detective Moosbruger
Vadin Nikitin	...	Boris
Ana Paula Demambro	...	Drena
Ana Pereira	...	Lola
Cristina Sverzuti	...	Prostitute #2

Also Known As:

12 Horas até o Amanhecer (Brazil) (cable TV title)
The Little Thief (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and sexual content, pervasive language and some drug use.

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA | Germany | Brazil

Language:

English | Portuguese | Yoruba

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Germany:16 | Germany:18 (DVD rating) | Singapore:M18 | Finland:K-15

Filming Locations:

Brazil

Company:

Millennium Films

Movie Connections:

References Sonic the Hedgehog (1991/I) (VG)

The Night of Entwined Mistakes

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")