Review of Dying of the Light (2014) by Darren B — 28 Jun 2016

Dying of the light is a strange case of a film. Paul Schrader in the director seat should be the insurance of quality since the man has a long and prolific body of work. apparently the film was edited and scored differently from what the director wanted, which could explain why the film feels a little contrived.

Cage delivers a strong performance but can't really help pull the film out. The editing isn't great and some of the scenes feels unfinished. The pace of the film is pretty moody which confers a certain degree of strangeness to the ensemble.

The lighting in the film is particularly interesting with a lot of different colors but once again since the film was truncated and recolored it's hard to say exactly what the director had in mind.

Overall it's an entertaining little film with a story seen many times but it remains somehow haunting and interesting the whole time. This film is definitely not a masterpiece but it has its moment.

I can only dream to finally see a director's cut of this film to really make an opinion about it. It's definitely sad when films are taken away from their directors and re-edited differently.