Night Always Comes movie review: Vanessa Kirby wouldn’t look like a mess even if she tried, and this hurts her Netflix thriller

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Vanessa Kirby and Zack Gottsagen in a still from Night Always Comes.

When she is forced to steal — her name is Lynette, by the way — the movie makes it clear that she is stealing from a corrupt politician, and not, say, an innocent child. It doesn’t even leave you to imagine the politician as being corrupt; instead, it devotes about two minutes to underlining just how crooked he is, just in case you were going to feel bad for him. The message would’ve been communicated had the movie simply waited a few minutes, but it simply doesn’t have the patience to. You aren’t allowed to question Lynette’s intentions for even a moment. You aren’t allowed to simmer in moral ambiguity.

When she is forced to inflict physical harm, it happens only because her own life is under threat. It’s a sign of desperation, yes, but not the kind of desperation that a movie like this should be investigating. Night Always Comes opens with an expository news report about the financial crisis in America following the Great Recession of 2008. The average American is poorer than ever, a disembodied voice tells us in the film’s first few minutes; they can’t afford houses, cars, and sometimes even food.

One of Brad Pitt’s most divisive movies, Killing them Softly, was also set against a similar backdrop. But it examined the fallout of the financial crisis from the perspective of criminals. They were suffering too. But no matter how hard Night Always Comes tries to suggest that Lynette is wounded bird of some kind — she has tattoos all over her back, engages in casual sex work, has priors — she comes across as an archetype more than a real person.

Some of this stems from the casting. If the script isn’t interested in going down difficult paths — and these are paths that the movie itself maps out before avoiding them altogether — the actors can can often push the material into more challenging directions. Kirby does this on exactly one occasion, when she asks a man she’s seeing for the money and gets laughed at. The entire movie could’ve been an exploration of that dynamic — it’s essentially Anora condensed into three minutes. She dresses up for him, puts on lipstick, and goes the whole nine yards; it’s heartbreaking. But the rest of the film, directed by Ben Caron, is far too manicured. It’s like one of those misguided village photo shoots that cause an online outrage for aestheticising poverty. There is most certainly an element of destitution chic to Night Always Comes, and it begins with the casting of Kirby. No matter how raw they make her look, you can hide that classic movie star face of hers. Even on her bad days, she looks like she could have doubled for Ingrid Bergman on Casablanca.

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Vanessa Kirby in a still from Night Always Comes.

The more that Night Always Comes leans on plot machinations over character, the more it suffers. The third act is nearly all plot, overpowering Lynette’s personality and any sociopolitical commentary that the film had shown an interest in making earlier. Jennifer Jason Leigh appears in a couple of scenes as Lynette’s mother, but she is vastly underused. The movie could’ve done with more of her. A string of character actors show up as Lynette’s past acquaintances; it’s interesting to note that each of these men instinctively decides to exploit her in her moment of weakness. But Night Always comes, first and foremost, is a one-crazy-night thriller. It isn’t, say, like To Leslie, the controversial drama for which actor Andrea Riseborough strong-armed an Oscar nomination. Nor is it as realistic as The Bicycle Thieves, the Italian classic to which this sort of narrative can perhaps be traced back to.

Kirby herself earned an Oscar nod for her performance in another Netflix film, the far superior Pieces of a Woman. Night Always Comes isn’t as plain as some of the other films that the streamer produces; it has style to spare. But it’s a piece of cinematic cosplay; a glossy, expensive star vehicle that wants to look and feel like something more gritty, something that captures what it’s like to be working class. It’s as if the filmmakers want to embrace Lynette, but not before she takes a bath first.

Night Always Comes
Director – Benjamin Caron
Cast – Vanessa Kirby, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Stephan James, Zack Gottsagen, Randall Park, Julia Fox
Rating – 2/5