★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆
The second of this month’s films with an ill-advised and
easily mocked title is this middle-of-the-road thriller remake starring Jamie
Foxx. Based upon the moderately acclaimed Nuit
Blanche¸ Sleepless sees deep
cover cop Vincent Downs (Foxx) scouring a Las Vegas hotel in search of his
kidnapped son after a drugs theft goes awry. The highly-coveted hoard sees Downs
caught between two criminal big shots (Dermot Mulroney and Scoot McNairy) and
pursued by plucky internal affairs officer Bryant (Michelle Monaghan).
Foxx gives a very toothy performance here; lots of spitting,
gritting and grimacing. Far from the adrenaline-fuelled fear of losing his son,
Foxx appears to be in desperate need of root canal. None of that can take away
from the fact that we’ve seen him give far better performances in similar fare
(and similar roles, come to that), and this inherent goodwill is what ignites
the merest semblance of interest in Downs’ story.
Said narrative is bookended efficiently enough (the opening
sequence and final showdown are uncomplicated and tightly constructed), but
everything in-between is dragged down by more subplots than is good for any
thriller. Corruption, double-crosses, underlying father-son troubles; it’s all
here. One imagines the filmmakers have pretentions towards something in the
vein of Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, having
given the film a faux-Johan Johansson score and a female lead on the tail of
corruption, but both fall flat. The music is overbearing in the extreme, and
though we’re undeniably more interested in what Monaghan’s getting up to, her
character is written laughably thin.
Equally two-dimensional but substantially more fun is McNairy
and his array of ball-themed threats. In his quest to appear scary, his slimy
baddie employs golf, baseball, human testicles and an oversized grenade
launcher that releases huge clouds of white…well, you get the idea.
The other performances aren’t exactly bad, they’re just sort
of…there. A single exception is made for Gabrielle Union as Downs’ estranged
wife, who is resoundingly poor. Still, the cinematography’s not half bad, while
an unnecessary sequel setup raises a titter over an eye-roll. The whole thing
seemed to go down rather well with an audience seeking a breather between
space-bound superheroes and boss babies.
