Rattaya Nimibutr
Staff Writer
Review
The suspense genre is now back in full force, thanks to mega-hits like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Nightwatch may not have Neve Campbell to scare off some psychotic killer, and it ultimately doesn't offer much satisfaction. But it still does scare up a few intense moments.
Ewan McGregor (A Life Less Ordinary) plays Martin Bells, whose routine life gets turned upside down when he takes a job as a night watchman at the local morgue. Understandably, he's a little nervous at first, but he begins to feel right at home after a few weeks.
Other than being a law student, all Martin needs to do is stay awake and make his rounds every hour. It all goes well enough until some shady things begin to happen, and all the roads of fault lead to no one else but him.
Martin is now being blamed for the uneventful things that are happening to the dead bodies piling up courtesy of a sick serial killer. He can only wait and see while more and more events twist and turn throughout the sporadically entertaining story.
Josh Brolin (Flirting With Disaster) is James, Martin's best friend who sees everything in his path as a challenge. Inevitably, James too becomes a suspect, displaying doubtful behavior that leaves Martin in even more chaos.
Reuniting with Brolin from Flirting With Diaster is Patricia Arquette, who plays Martin's girlfriend Katherine. Nick Nolte also pops up as Inspector Cray, the requisite cop addition to any scary movie.
With these four characters and a so-so storyline, foreign director Ole Bornedal is able to put together a somewhat adult version of Scream, though the film's buildup is barely able to make the audience breathless. It is a break, though, from all the sci-fi flicks currently invading movie screens.
McGregor is an innocent schoolboy in this one, stepping back from his usual bad boy portrayals in Trainspotting and A Life Less Ordinary (not to mention the prequel to Star Wars.) Here, though, he simply proves he is able to make facial reactions as opposed to normal, conversational acting.
Arquette and Brolin don't take their supporting roles anywhere particularly exhilarating, either, displaying nothing more than mediocre acting.
Nolte doesn't shine any brighter, if he shines at all. His trench-coat detective can be seen on any crime-drama on TV, but no horror film is complete without a know-it-all cop, and hey, why not throw Nolte in since all the good actors are busy?
Nightwatch could've been much more, but the studio apparently didn't think so - it's been on the shelf way too long. Instead, we get lots of cringing, yucky reactions, a killer with some superficial purpose and a cop who seems to know everything. So much for the new wave of horror films.