Movies
One Night Stand
A simulacrum of a Good Life film in the French style, such as might have been made by one of the Claudes -- Lelouch or Sautet -- about the impromptu fling of a TV-commercial director (Wesley Snipes) and a rocket scientist (Nastassja Kinski) and its consequences, a wisp of a storyline tricked out with a lot of floaty hand-held camerawork, monochromatic memory flashes, fine dining and wining, stimulating table talk ("Television is a frontal lobotomy"), and a soundtrack with an expansive taste for jazz and classical. It takes half an hour to explain (i.e., to excuse) how this man, whose head is unturned by the fashion models he works with daily, could lapse into infidelity with a total stranger. But then the movie cannot, for the remainder of the way, be bothered to establish any past or present chemistry between the man and his "very beautiful" wife (Ming-Na Wen), who proves to be an oblivious fatuous prattler: "Oh yeah, I've heard of Albany." With an emotional impact that ranges from minor irritation to major embarrassment, the movie is of interest chiefly for the purpose of estimating how many hat sizes Mike Figgis's head has swelled as a result of the excessive praise he received for his Leaving Las Vegas. With Kyle MacLachlan and Robert Downey, Jr. 1997.
Reader Rating:
MPAA Rating: R
