About Last Night

This past weekend, there have been three different remakes of films from the 1980s, with RoboCop and Endless Love being the previous two.  Of the three, About Last Night is not only the most faithful to the original source material, it's also the best.  As an adaptation of the 1986 film (and the David Mamet play, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, that inspired it), this film keeps the general plot, characters and even some of the dialogue in tact.  However, it's not slavishly faithful to the point that it doesn't need to exist, and adds a lot of its own charms, including a very likable lead cast.

Director Steve Pink (Hot Tub Time Machine) and screenwriter Leslye Headland (Bachelorette) have changed the film's setting from Chicago to LA, but have more or less kept the basic plot and characters in check.  Our key characters are Danny (Michael Early) and Debbie (Joy Bryant), who meet at a bar through their respective best friends, Bernie (Kevin Hart) and Joan (Regina Hall).  There is a strong instant bond between Danny and Debbie in the film, and Early and Bryant have more than enough chemistry together that we buy it.  They sleep together after their first date, and move quickly through the different stages of a relationship - starting out as "friends with benefits", and eventually becoming more serious as they fall in love and move in with other.  We get to watch them go through the "honeymoon phase", and eventually become frustrated with each other as reality sets in, and the relationship becomes a normal aspect of their everyday life.  This is certainly nothing we haven't seen before (and Before Midnight did a better job exploring a deteriorating relationship), but the screenplay does have some smart things to say about couples, and the actors hold our attention.

We also get a subplot following Bernie and Joan's relationship, and how it goes from being heavily sexual, to non-existent with the two seemingly hating each other, and back to the starting point when they eventually get together.  If Danny and Debbie are supposed to be the "straight" characters that couples can relate to, than Bernie and Joan exist mainly as comic relief sidekicks, and they do their job well.  Both Kevin Hart and Regina Hall get some big laughs with their dialogue, which seems to be a mixture of the original Mamet dialogue, and new content.  Hart, in particular, finally gets to stand out here, after the rather mediocre Ride Along from just last month, where he showed a ton of energy, but didn't have that good of material to work with.  Here, he gets some genuinely funny dialogue, and displays the same kind of high energy performance, that shows what the guy can do with the right script.

What About Last Night does share with the very good original film is that both are very frank and honest about sexual relationships, and how men and women act in them.  Like I said, it's nothing new, and a lot of films have covered the very same material.  But Headland's script remains very bright, taking a few new angles that were not in the original.  Regardless, she does pay some tribute to the earlier film, even giving the original film's stars, Rob Lowe and Demi Moore, a sort-of cameo that serves as a throwback.  But I think what I appreciated the most is that this is a romantic comedy about smart people that treats its characters as relatively smart people.  Watching this film, I found myself thinking back on the recent That Awkward Moment, which shares a lot of similarities with this, only it's not written as smart.  This is the film that movie wanted to be, and could have been if the characters in the other movie had been written better.

I have already briefly touched on the strong chemistry between the stars Michael Early and Joy Bryant, but I feel I should go a little bit deeper, as they really do bring a lot to their characters.  Unlike the high energy performances of Hart and Hall, these two are required to be much more down to Earth and relatable, and do a wonderful job.  The script gives them a three dimensional relationship, where we can see how it slowly builds and ultimately falls apart, and both are up to the challenge of creating these well rounded characters.  Not only do they have great romantic chemistry, but they are also able to sell the uncertain moments of their relationships in such a way that seems realistic.  When they argue, it feels like a real argument, not a staged moment where they are playing for the cameras.  It's the honesty in the performances and the writing that really sells these characters, and allows us to get behind them and want to see them work things out by the end.

About Last Night is one of the better remakes I have seen recently, as it understands what made the original film work, without trying to completely copy the earlier formula.  It's not afraid to strike out on its own, nor does it ignore the charms from its predecessor.  Throw in a strong cast and some very smart and often very funny writing, and you have a romantic comedy that's strong enough to survive well past the Valentine's Day weekend rush.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

0 comments