Susan Granger’s review of “Cold Comes The Night” (Samuel Goldwyn Films)
Crime’s afoot as the opening shot of this neo-noir thriller focuses on a snow globe, dangling telephone handset, shattered glass door, lifeless body and blowing, blood-stained $100 bills.
In frigid upstate New York, Topo (Bryan Cranston), an Eastern European thug, is being chauffeured through Greene County by his nephew. He’s a courier, delivering a bag of money to a kingpin across the border in Montreal, Quebec. They make a brief stop at a seedy roadside motel, which is frequented by hookers and drug users. The establishment is managed by hard-working single mother Chloe (Alice Eve), who is worried about her young daughter, Sophia (Ursula Parker), since a social services worker threatens to take custody unless she finds more ‘appropriate’ housing within two weeks. When Topo’s nephew tangles with a prostitute, both end up dead, and a corrupt cop, Billy (Logan Marshall-Green), confiscates their Jeep Cherokee. Ruthless Topo, who is nearly blind, threatens to kill Sophia unless Chloe will help him recover the valuable stash that’s hidden in the impounded SUV.
Scripted by director Tze Chun with Osgood Perkins and Nick Simon, it’s not only loaded with a pervasive aura of treacherous violence and atmospheric isolation but also serves as a showcase for the considerable talents of Alice Eve, best known as super-smart Dr. Carol Marcus in “Star Trek Into Darkness.” As exhausted yet tenacious Chloe, Eve turns out to be spunky and clever, desperately trying to match wits with Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”), who warns, “You have no idea how in over your head you are.”
According to press notes, the drama, previously titled “Eye of Winter” and “Cold Quarter,” was shot over 22 days in October and November, 2012, in Windham, Cairo and East Durham, New York. And this is the second collaboration between director Tze Chun and producer Mynette Louis; their first was “Children of Invention,” which premiered at Sundance in 2009.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Cold Comes The Night” is a suspenseful 6 – in theaters and VOD.
