Movie Review: Gone in the Night (2022)
Synopsis: Middle-aged Kath agrees to go on a romantic adventure with her younger, slacker boyfriend, Max, to a remote cabin. When they arrive, they discover another couple, Al and Greta, already occupying it and, despite a lot of reluctance, decides to share it with them for a night. When she wakes up the next morning, she finds Al crying in the woods because Max and Greta ran off together. With the help of the cabin's owner, Nicholas, she seeks answers about why Max left her. However, she winds up discovering something sinister.
Who's in it? The movie stars Winona Ryder, Dermot Mulroney, John Gallagher Jr., Owen Teague and Brianne Tju.
Review: I picked this movie out at our local library on Saturday both because the plot sounded interesting and because it's been a while since I've seen a movie starring Winona Ryder. We got around to watching this film last night and it proved to be a big disappointment.
There were a lot of problems with this movie, starting with the fact it was extremely predictable. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out Al (Teague) was lying to her about Max's (Gallagher Jr) whereabouts and less effort to figure out what really happened to him. That, combined with the very slow pace of the film (likely because the plot itself wasn't enough to make it a full-length movie) made it kind of dull.
Another thing that hurts this film is the decision to show the viewer exactly what happened through flashbacks. As I said, it was already predictable. The flashbacks just compounded that by leaving absolutely no mystery about who Al and Greta (Tju) were or why Max really wanted to go to the cabin.
Despite all of that, my biggest problem with this movie was the obvious lack of chemistry between Kath (Ryder) and Max. Max reminded me a bit of the ex-boyfriend from a Hallmark movie. The one that is so incompatible with the protagonist, it's impossible to figure out what she saw in him in the first place.
There was nothing about the pair that convinced me they were still in love or ever were in love and that made her obsession over him "leaving her" very unbelievable. Frankly, I was so uninvested in Max and their relationship, I really couldn't have cared less if she discovered what happened to him. If anything, his disappearance seemed like something that should have benefited her.
The movie might have been slightly better had Max turned out to be a bad guy who was trying to lure Kath into a trap, rather than an idiot who cluelessly invited his girlfriend to accompany him to what was obviously a trap (then made himself seem even more like an ass once they got there). However, even then, I'm not sure it would be worth watching because everything I just mentioned would likely still apply.
Final Opinion: Remember when Winona Ryder used to star in good movies? Watch one of those rather than this one.
My Grade: F
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