Night Call - Film Review

 

Most people go their entire lives without brushing up against the world of organised crime, gangs, and extreme violence. It's a thing to be found in the movies or on the news, not suddenly injected into your everyday life. Night Call, the directorial debut of Belgian filmmaker Michiel Blanchart, takes this idea of a normal person finding their life thrown upside down by criminals and takes it to the extreme as Mady (Jonathan Feltre), a locksmith working night shifts, is dragged into a world of danger and murder by a call gone wrong.

The film begins by following Mady through a typical night, helping people get inside their homes when they've lost their keys, grabbing food from corner shops, and listening to classic music as he drives around the city. It's painted as a quiet, slow job that seems to suit him well. However, this all changes when he receives a call from Claire (Natacha Krief), a young woman who's locked her keys in her apartment and needs help. Arriving on the scene, Mady is ready to assist her, but when she can't pay him up front or show him her ID, both things she claims are locked inside, he goes against regulations and takes a chance on her, opening up the door. Claire goes inside to grab the cash, but realises she needs to head to the ATM downstairs, but invites him to wait in the apartment for her. Oh, and she's tossing out a bag of rubbish as she goes too.

Whilst waiting inside the apartment for Claire she calls his phone, telling him he has to leave quick before the real owner comes home and finds him there. However, it's too late for that, as Mady is attacked. During the fight Mady accidentally kills the attacker, and in a panic goes to call the police to turn himself in. But it's the news reports about BLM protests in the city, and footage of police brutality that makes him think perhaps a young Black man calling the cops to arrest him for murder isn't the best idea. Instead, he decides to try and clean up the crime scene and cover his tacks. But when more of the mans friends arrive on the scene Mady is captured and brought before a local gang leader, Yannick (Romain Duris), who tells Mady that Claire stole a load of money from him, and that he's got until morning to find her and get it back, or he dies in her place.

Mady is essentially an everyman, a regular person who is ill prepared for the situation he now finds himself in. And Feltre plays this role well. A lot of these kind of thrillers begin with an everyman type character, but often end up with them having more unrealised skills than some secret agents, able to fight of gangsters like they're a hired killer. Mady, on the other hand, rarely gets through situations with any kind of skill, and ends up either with things getting worse for him, or with him getting injured. He uses the skills he has, such as his locksmithing, but essentially makes up his plan as he goes along, just trying to stay alive until morning. Feltre injects a lot of humanity into Mady, with various looks of panic or sadness on his face the majority of times. It's moments of him failing to be the tough guy, literally breaking down in tears after hurting someone for information at one point, that makes him feel genuine and believable.

There are moments of violence in the film, and none of them are made to feel like action scenes where the protagonist is rising up over the challenge and being a hero. Instead, things feel brutal and shocking, and the violence, whilst not gratuitous, is harsh enough that it feels frightening, and you end up worrying for Mady. Blanchart handles these moments wonderfully, and manages to create a film that looks really well polished yet retains an almost gritty and horrible emotional undercurrent to it. The film is visually engaging, and pretty enough that you forget you're watching a debut movie. 

The films backdrop of a city being divided by BLM protests also works in the story's favour. Perhaps the smartest thing it does is that it allows the perfect excuse of why Mady, a man who would never normally try to get away with murder, would be ready to cut up and dispose of a body. The fear of a police force who he's seeing literally beating and killing people who look like him is not only perfectly understandable, but makes it so that you never question why he never goes for help at any point. It also plays into the ending in a wonderfully twisted and beautiful ending that feels both surprising, and completely expected.

Night Call was a surprisingly well crafted, and engaging movie that manages to do a lot over its relatively short runtime. It creates a character that you end up feeling a lot for, and creates a story that can be taken as a relatively straightforward crime thriller, or one that has deeper meaning and extra layers for those who are looking for it. I hope to see more from both Blanchart and Feltre in the future, as this film left me incredibly impressed.

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