Last Night

I watched this movie in two parts over two days. The first time, I made it through about 30 minutes and then I had to turn it off and flip out for a while, since it had induced a sincere panic attack. That probably doesn’t sound terrific, but honestly what it told me was that this movie did a great job telling the truth.
On its surface, Last Night, which is written and directed by Massy Tadjedin, is a film about a couple who might cheat on each other. At its core, though, it’s about trust, faith, sense of self, and love. Most importantly, it questions whether love trumps the other themes.
 The plot is simple. Sam Worthington and Keira Knightley play Michael and Joanna, a New York couple who married young. Eva Mendes plays Laura, Michael’s co-worker, and Guillaume Canet is Alex, Joanna’s ex. Michael and Laura go to Philly on a business trip. The same day, Joanna bumps into Alex. The rest is conversation and choices.
 I think that everyone has had the experience of being attracted to, or having a deep connection with, someone they’re “not supposed to,” and it’s easy for many people to write off even the idea of cheating as evil. The fact is, though, life is complicated and messy, and if everything, especially love and lust and connection, were that simple to fathom, there would be far fewer divorces and the psychiatry industry would go bust. Is it possible to be in love with more than one person at a time? I bet it is, but I bet it hurts like hell, and that’s not something this movie shies away from. Is cheating always about being unhappy in your relationship? Nope. Sorry, haters.
 Keira Knightley gets a lot of flack from a lot of people, and I cannot figure out why. She’s got a big jaw, yeah. Maybe she’s a pain in the ass to work with, and that’s a shame, but let me tell you, girl gets it done. Guillaume Canet, besides being ridiculously handsome and JESUS CHRIST that accent, does a pretty stunning job here. He could wear a surgical mask and speak nonsense words and we’d know exactly what was going on just by his eyes. The Joanna/Alex storyline is more engaging than the Michael/Laura one, partly just because of the dialogue, but mostly because they are out-acted. Michael and Laura don’t have the history of the other two, so their story is more in-your-face, fireworks, right now right now right now, while Joanna and Alex are a slow-burning flame.
 What made me have a panic attack? I’m not entirely sure. Maybe I recognized myself. Maybe I recognized other people. Maybe I recognized some of the dialogue, or the situations, or some other thing that I have not come to grips with. Or maybe I was just having a bad night. In any case, I’m glad that I finished the movie, since it was great and it made me want to write. And these days, that’s all I can ask for .