It’s said that nobody really understands a marriage except the man and woman in it. However, often they don’t truly know it, either. That’s just one of the lessons of “Last Night,” a gripping film about temptation, that is inexplicably opening at the arthouse, rather than a multiplex. Sure, it’s the directorial debut of a little-known screenwriter, Iranian-American Massy Tadjedin. But it has some fairly big names — Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington of “Avatar” — and a very big theme.
Joanna (Knightley) and Michael (Worthington) are a happily married couple. At least until a party brings Joanna in contact with Michael’s co-worker Laura (Eva Mendes). She spies the pair joking around, alone on the balcony. The wife is angry that her husband has mentioned the new hire, but hasn’t mentioned that she’s stunning. By the time Michael leaves the next morning for an overnight business trip, Joanna decides she’s overreacted. But whether it was going to happen anyway, or if his wife’s suspicions gave him the idea, the sparks fly that night between the two colleagues.
| On screen |
| ‘Last Night’ |
| 3.5 out of 5 stars |
| Stars: Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Guillaume Canet, Eva Mendes |
| Director: Massy Tadjedin |
| Rated: Not rated (adult situations) |
| Running time: 92 minutes |
Joanna, however, ends up having an indecisive evening of her own. The man she briefly dated when she’d split up with Michael before the engagement is visiting New York from Paris. Alex (actor-director Guillaume Canet) is smart, charming and French — a winning combination. He still adores Joanna; it isn’t even clear why they broke it off, other than the fact Michael wanted back in the picture.
There’s real chemistry between all the players here. It’s a group of gorgeous people — why wouldn’t they be tempted by one another? It’s not just the acting that makes this film feel so raw and real, though. Tadjedin has written a talky script — yet one with a sense of eroticism between the words — that’s as messy as reality. The questions it explores are ones all of us must answer eventually. Besides the often-exploited temptation, there’s another: Do people change? A character played by Griffin Dunne, who adds as much to the Manhattan atmosphere as the frequent shots of buildings do, doesn’t think so: “At most, your weight fluctuates and you dress differently.”
