Review of Sleepless Night (2013) by Walter M — 04 Dec 2013

"Sleepless Night" starts with Vincent(Tomer Sisley) and Manuel(Laurent Stocker) robbing an illegal drug shipment. Since one of the victims brought a knife to a gun fight, things do not go perfectly as Vincent is stabbed and there is one dead. That is now one crime that Vincent and Manuel have to investigate in their day job as police detectives. Oh, and Jose Marciano(Serge Riaboukine) would very much like his drugs back, if it is not too much trouble, as he has Vincent's son Thomas(Samy Seghir). The exchange would have gone well if Vignali(Lizzie Brochere), an internal affairs detective, had not been trailing him and moved the drugs from its hiding spot. She reports all of this to Lacombe(Julien Boisselier), her supervisor, who is in cahoots with Manuel.

"Sleepless Night" proves that all you need for a well-crafted lean and mean crime thriller is some drugs, guns and one cool location, plus maybe a sense of humor. Of course, you have to keep the plates spinning non-stop which this movie does with a great deal of skill. Plus, it helps that all the depserate characters each have their specific motivations. However, there is a twist half way through the movie that takes some of the edge off but nobody's perfect. And by the end, I realized that for a movie involving a kidnapped child, this movie is surprisingly not mawkish in also being about a father's love for his son.