Journey to the End of the Night [DVD]

This won't be everyone's bag, but it's set in the gritty and visually interesting Sao Paulo and is pretty riveting through out. The plot is a bit serpentine and perhaps a bit overly ambitious, but there are some pretty good performances and nice suspense. Mos Def in particular is very effective in his role; he continues to give interesting and challenging performances establishing himself as a reliable actor. Brendan Fraser plays against type and does a decent job as a drugged out on-the-edge criminal looking to escape the Brazilian underworld. Gritty, very grim, but entertaining and for the most part, well done.

This movie started off so slow for me. I was a little concerned, but once again, I'm on a spree to see every single movie that Mos Def was in, so I hoped that he knew what he was doing when he picked this role. I shook my head when he started speaking in a Nigerian accent. That cat loves to speak in any accent but his own Brooklyn drawl, and even better, he does it so well. I wonder how people from South Africa would judge his accent because I thought it was on point (from my inexperienced viewpoint). Anyway, the movie is basically about five main characters who are trying to turn their lives around, but in every possible way, destiny is toying with their future as a drug deal goes on. The only character who seems to know how things will end is a psychic dude who is about as cool as he wants to be just from sitting in a chair. Every single person in this movie was perfect for their roles, and I love that they actually went to South Africa instead of setting up scenes. The grittiness, the temperature, the darkness, and even the extras could not have been any more authentic. This is the perk of going to the land where the film should be set. I love that the director picked out people who'd never acted in their lives because it gave new people a chance to act, and boy, did they do a great job. Of course Mos did not disappoint me, and I really enjoyed his character throughout the film. I was tickled by the bookkeeper/accounting debater, as well as the conversation at the desk between father and son. Although I initially had distaste for the bad guys, the film laced their actions together so then I was confused about who REALLY was the bad guys. I closed my eyes during the dog scene--I didn't want to see the result of that at all, and I could've gone without the n-word coming out of one character's mouth, but so be it. That's probably realistic to what a character like him would've said anyway. In all actuality, none of them were really bad guys. They were just people who were acting like human beings who make mistakes. Excellent film!

For those of us who found much to admire and appreciate in Eric Eason's 2002 little powerhouse of a film MANITO that placed Franky G in the limelight as a sound actor inside that hunky exterior, the release of JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE NIGHT held much promise. Unfortunately with moving into the arena of 'major features' with popular big actors in a script that is deeply in need of surgery proves a step too quickly taken. While it is easy to see Eason's intentions in this very dark (literally!) film, it is compulsively doctored with phony 'reality ideas' that misfire.

The basic story is a family of Americans who are deeply involved in the crime scene (brothels) of São Paulo, Brazil, intricately bound in their crime acts but both planning to escape the quagmire of the dingy life of the city and return to America. The father Sinatra (Scott Glenn) is living with Angie (Catalina Sandino Moreno - the star of 'Maria Full of Grace') and they have a small child: Sinatra's son Paul (Brendan Fraser) is also in love with Angie and plans an escape from the dregs of Sao Paulo after he manages to work a drug pass engineered by his father. The sale is to Nigerians who speak Yoruba and when the 'messenger' meant to pass the drugs for the money abruptly dies in a brothel with a transgender prostitute, the panic begins: who can make the pass that night? Sinatra hires a Nigerian, Yoruba speaking dishwasher Wemba (Mos Def) who agrees to take the drugs to the drop site and it seems Wemba is the only decent character to keep his bargain and his word. Paul is enraged with the death of the original middleman and ends up disfiguring the prostitute present at his death. The drug deal falls into problems, Paul is unable to convince Angie to stand by him (which mean leaving Paul's father and the possible endangerment of her son), and things bog down plot-wise so that story ultimately ends with the only persons to care about are Angie and Wemba.

Eason makes his story all happen in one night and the constant factor is a greenish darkness that hides almost everything - and that may be a good thing! The script is Swiss cheese, the acting is for the most part sadly directed, the cast is poorly chosen, and the only real redeeming factor is the chance to watch Mos Def continue to flesh out his career with well executed character roles. Eric Eason holds much promise as a director (he was the awarded best emerging filmmaker by first annual Tribeca Film Festival in New York City in 2002), so perhaps this excursion into the 'big screen realm' can be forgiven as overstepping his material. In the end JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE NIGHT is hopefully just a sidestep for a director who obviously has considerable talent. Grady Harp, March 07