Manhattan Night (2016)

May 20, 2016, release date

Directed by Brian DeCubellis

Screenplay by Brian DeCubellis

Based on the novel Manhattan Nocturne by Colin Harrison

Music by Joel Douek

Edited by Andy Keir

Cinematography by David Tumblety

Adrien Brody as Porter Wren

Yvonne Strahovski as Caroline Crowley

Jennifer Beals as Lisa Wren

Thomas Bair as Tommy Wren

Madison Elizabeth Lagares as Lisa Wren

Campbell Scott as Simon Crowley

Stan Karp as Frank Crowley

Linda Lavin as Norma Segal

Steven Berkoff as Sebastian Hobbs

Kevin Breznahan as Ron

Raul Aranas as Luis

Grace Rundhaug as young Caroline

Kevin Breznahan as Ron

Produced by DeCubellis Films, Untravelled Worlds, Fable House, Nocturne Pictures, Big Indie Pictures

Distributed by Lionsgate Premiere

Manhattan Night is a neo-noir that is very much like the films noir of the 1940s and 1950s. The protagonist is an investigative journalist, not a private detective, but he’s caught in a typical noir dilemma thanks to a woman he cannot resist. Porter Wren meets Caroline Crowley at a party hosted by his employer, Sebastian Hobbs. All three become enmeshed in a mystery that all of them want solved—for very different reasons. Porter’s attraction to Caroline starts the events in motion; his inability to resist delving into the mysterious circumstances of her husband’s death moves the plot along.

After some opening film credits and overhead shots of New York City in the rain, viewers hear a voice-over from Porter Wren:

“I sell mayhem, scandal, murder, and doom. Oh, Jesus, I do. I sell the newborn and the dead. I sell the wretched, magnificent city of New York back to its people. I sell newspapers.”

Wren also describes himself, a print journalist, as “an endangered species.” The overhead shots of New York City in the rain are disorienting. One shot in particular is dizzying as the camera seems to roll over its lens above a skyscraper. Viewers can already sense the unease and the trouble to come.

Later in the film, after Hobbs’s party, where Wren meets Caroline for the first time, he goes home to a house tucked away from the city street. He needs to open three sets of locks and pass through a narrow alley, and viewers hear him again in voice-over:

“When the gate shuts, my work and the city remain on the other side of the wall that surrounds our hidden home. Lisa and I fell in love with this house when we were first married. There’s something about surviving hundreds of years, like a secret. It kept me honest. Anywhere else, the house should be mundane. But in Manhattan, it was a miracle. My family slept inside, safe from the dangers of these dark streets, secluded too from the world of Caroline Crowley and her famous dead husband, who could not enter this sacred place, unless, of course, I brought them home with me.”

If viewers aren’t already convinced that trouble is in store for Wren, his voice-over should dispel all doubt. A film that begins so ominously cannot keep Wren and his family safe forever, no matter how many locks Porter Wren uses to keep the world out. Fate takes him to dangerous places: He cannot deny his attraction to Caroline, and his natural curiosity, so useful in his work, keeps him investigating her husband Simon Crowley’s death. His ability to solve the mystery eventually becomes a matter of personal safety for himself and his family, so he cannot make a clean break even after he realizes his initial mistake in pursuing an affair with Caroline.

(This blog post about Manhattan Night contains spoilers.)

Caroline is a femme fatale, but one with a back story. Caroline tells Porter her story of childhood trauma and abuse at the end of the film. Was this revelation about her past intended to make Caroline sympathetic? It’s clear that she is a victim, both as a child at the hands of her stepfather and as an adult at the hands of her husband. But she uses her appeal to lure Porter Wren into helping her. Wren tells her at one point that he loves her, but I never believed that Caroline returned his affection. She comes across as more sympathetic in her relationship with Sebastian Hobbs, but even that episode was originally intended for personal gain in her marriage.

Viewers and Wren hear Caroline’s story after Porter discovers how her husband Simon died, and Wren and Caroline meet one last time. Porter gives her a copy of Simon’s last video (Simon recorded many, and viewers see several) and threatens to publish it if she contacts his wife again. Earlier in the film, Caroline claimed to have rheumatoid arthritis and consulted Lisa Wren, a surgeon, who knew that Caroline was lying and tells her husband about the incident. Lisa Wren doesn’t accuse her husband directly, but they both understand the significance of the event.

I very much enjoyed Manhattan Night, but I do have some reservations about the story. Here are my questions that were left unanswered after my single viewing of the film on DVD:

1.  How did Caroline escape suspicion with all the blood she must have had on her after Simon’s evisceration?

2.  No one else, including Hobbs’s henchmen, could figure out that the key opened the padlock on the basement door of the building that had been demolished after Caroline had killed Simon and left his body there?

3.  No one else, including the police, was able to trace the mailings of the video copies to Norma Segal?

The film is based on Manhattan Nocturne, by Colin Harrison, and I wonder: Are these questions answered in the book? I guess I’ll have to read it to find out, but I shouldn’t have to, and the film should have provided the answers. I enjoyed Manhattan Night and, in spite of my misgivings about the unresolved plot details, I enjoyed it enough to recommend it.