The Good Night

Review By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

Many will often note how difficult the hurdle is of trying to make it into the film world, especially with your own unique ideas. However, sometimes, it’s not always what you know that gives you an edge, but who you know.

Jake Paltrow is the brother of Oscar-award winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow and has managed to build a solid career directing several episodes of the ABC TV drama NYPD Blue. However, his first stab at writing and directing a film doesn’t pan out nearly as smoothly with the black comedy The Good Night, now available on DVD.

Gary (Martin Freeman) is a British keyboard player whose pop career has stalled into a dismal gig as a commercial jingle writer. Though he feels he loves his girlfriend Dora (Gwyneth Paltrow), Gary is miserable and unhappy and suffering from all the makings of a midlife crisis.

His only solace is in his dreams, where Gary is constantly enchanted by a woman named Anna (Penelope Cruz). Seeking an escape from his dying relationship with Dora, Gary becomes fascinated with the world of lucid dreaming and soon seeks the guidance of expert Mel (Danny DeVito).

Soon enough, his former bandmate-turned-boss Paul (Simon Pegg) gets in on the action with Gary as the two begin engaging in their lurid fantasies. However, Gary’s escapism turns into reality when Paul has him meet a model named Melody, who turns out to be the real-life woman from which his subconscious has created Anna in his dreams.

While Jake Paltrow attempts to imbue his feature film debut with unique ideas, The Good Night unfortunately shows he lacks enough skill as a filmmaker at this point to create his own films. Off the bat, the story is a self-consciously arty and incoherent jumble of documentary, black comedy, neo-surrealism, and erotic drama that fails to click on any level. Making matters worse, a great cast here is ultimately wasted in characters that mostly come off as pretentious, self-indulgent, and ultimately unidentifiable.

The DVD’s picture quality is in the 1:85:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio, with the sound quality in Dolby Digital Surround 5.1., The DVD’s sole feature is audio commentary with director/writer Jake Paltrow.

Paltrow manages to be informative enough here. However, his choice to record the film in his apartment, where his ideas for the film were allegedly inspired, comes off as a rather pretentiously shallow conceit as it causes a constantly loud echo in the audio.

All in all, while Jake Paltrow may have shown enough skill to get by directing TV episodes, The Good Night proves indicative of how unready and lacking he is at this point with doing