The Night Never Sleeps
I’m not sure that I would compare this gritty, morally-corrupt crime thriller to the likes of “Taxi Driver” and “The French Connection,” but in tone, Fred Carpenter’s New York drama certainly packs a punch similar to those movies. When I call the film “morally-corrupt,” it’s simply a description of the narrative laid out by screenwriter (and career cop) Michael Lovaglio in his plainly-seen tale of gang dealings and shades of grey police work. From the opening scene, this film grabs you and, pardon the cliche, doesn’t let go.
Before that, however, the first thing you notice about “The Night Never Sleeps” is its score. It was composed by jazz musician Vincent Nigro, whose work I first heard in “Night for Day,” another moody New York story starring Russ Camarda, who plays the Hispanic enforcer, Iceman, in this film. It’s Iceman that we first see in this film, as he’s in the back of a police car, being taken in after an evening of bloodshed. He’s taunting the driver, although as the film rewinds eight hours, we’ll see him do and say much worse in the course of his duties. The cold stare Camarda employs, and the experimental and dramatic sound of Nigro’s music, play a huge part in the film’s overall impact, as we follow a cop’s investigation of a string of murders that include a couple of fellow officers.
Lovaglio’s story is pretty straightforward, although motivations are anything but. For some (like a corrupt cop), it’s all about the money. For others (like Det. Cavanaugh, the lead cop on the case played by Dan Brennan), it’s about trying to find some redemption for past sins, sins that keep him on the radar of Internal Affairs Agent Romanelli (Armand Assante). For others, however (like Iceman), motivations aren’t so black-and-white; does he love Marisol, the prostitute he spends the evening tracking down after shooting a cop in a bar? What about Cavanaugh’s partner, Officer Rourke (Stephanie Finochio)– is she truly “one of the good ones,” as Cavanaugh thinks? Well, she probably would have been, but the point is, when it comes to the modern world of cops and robbers, the good guys and bad guys are never as simple as they used to be. Of course, after films such as “Heat,” “The Departed,” “GoodFellas,” “Hard-Boiled,” and others like the aforementioned classics, we don’t really need another film to illustrate that. That said, when a film is as well-done and skillfully acted as this one (which moves at a break-neck pace of 78 minutes), you won’t hear me complaining one bit.
