The crime thriller “Take the Night” has some interesting ideas floating around in it, but instead of them all getting tied together, the proceedings just sort of fall apart in the end.
Writer/director/star Seth McTigue gives us the story of a heist told from the perspective of both the criminals and the victims.
McTigue plays Chad, a military veteran turned criminal who sees the opportunity to turn the page on his criminal past when the opportunity for one-last-big-score falls into his lap.
William Chang (Roy Huang) reaches out to Chad to execute the prank kidnapping of his brother Robert Chang (Sam Song Li).
Robert has just taken over as the president of the family business, which just so happens to be a multi-million-dollar international company. Chad sees the opportunity to turn the fake kidnapping into a very real one and assembles his crew, which includes his own brother Todd (Brennan Keel Cook).
What works best about “Take the Night” is its examination of brotherhood on both sides of the tracks. William is jealous and resentful of Robert inheriting the company while Robert still looks up to his brother even though he feels isolated from him.
Chad, who is serious and dour, feels protective of Todd, who is a goofy free spirit, while Todd is frustrated that his brother can’t let go of the past.
The performances are surprisingly strong and McTigue has some talent as a filmmaker, but once the plot starts chugging into action, the movie starts to collapse under the weight of unbelievability and twists into nowhere.
One character even gets a 30-second, post-credits sequence of little consequence just in case anyone was paying close enough attention to wonder, “Hey, what happened to that one guy?”
“Take the Night” has some good things going for it, but not enough to save it from itself.
“Take the Night” is rated PG-13 for some violence.
