Film Pick of the Week: Night Always Comes - review by Yvette Huddleston
Night Always Comes Netflix, review by Yvette Huddleston
In a role that couldn’t be further from the one that made her famous – playing the young princess Margaret in the early series of The Crown – Vanessa Kirby stars in this this gritty drama based on the 2021 novel by Willy Vlautin as troubled former sex worker Lynette. She lives in a tough neighourhood of Portland, Oregon with her older brother Kenny (Zach Gottsagen), who has Down syndrome, with whom she has a lovely, strong bond, and their distant, flighty mother Doreen (Jennifer Jason Leigh).
Lynette works in a bakery by day, a bar by night, and still does occasional escort work, while also trying to attend lectures at her local community college and take care of Kenny while Doreen is at work. The family’s dilapidated home, where they have lived as tenants for years, has come up for sale and the landlord is willing to give them a favourable price to buy it. Lynette is keen for them to do that and they have managed to get together the money to do that but on the day that she and Doreen have arranged to meet at the bank to sign the contract and secure the house, her mother fails to show up. Worse than that, it turns out that she has spent the $25, 000 which was meant for the downpayment on a car.
Lynette can’t believe what her mother has done and sets about desperately trying to get the money together before the deadline the following morning. The narrative then follows her increasingly desperate – and sometimes illegal – attempts to find the cash. It becomes clear that Lynette has had a complicated past and has struggled with various issues along the way, including drug and alcohol abuse, but the possible reasons for this also emerge.
The race against time element cranks up the tension as Lynette tries various ways in which to get the money together. These include meeting up with a businessman client (Randall Park) who she has been seeing who laughs at her when she asks for a loan, visiting an old friend who owes her $3,000 but refuses to give it to her, then making increasingly bad decisions that lead her into to some very difficult and dangerous situations as the night wears on and her exhaustion and desperation grow. It is not an easy watch but Kirby gives a raw, convincing performance that elicits great sympathy.