A struggling motel owner and her daughter are taken hostage by a nearly blind career criminal to be his eyes as he attempts to retrieve his cash package from a crooked cop.
Twists pile as high as corpses before an overcooked ending sends things spiraling into silliness.
Seldom come the thrills in this dogged bag-of-loot B-movie, which chases its tail in scurrying circles around a downscale motel in upstate New York.
A so-so indie crime thriller with one trump card: Bryan Cranston, from Breaking Bad, is in it.
Writer-director Tze Chun’s picture starts off as a mildly diverting tick box exercise in 90s neo-noir cliché (cultural backwater, mismatched criminal duo, stash of cash…) but as the silliness gets ramped up and performances collide the film becomes less interesting.
There’s no sense of place and so, save for a fleeting moment of greatness midway through involving Billy and his strung-out wife (played by Sarah Sokolovic), the film’s two leads end up feeling like generic archetypes dropped into a generic world. At this stage in his career, Cranston surely deserves better from cinema than this.
Cold Comes the Night is a small movie (with a doubtless small audience) boosted by Eve's tough but understated performance.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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