Movie Review: The Night Clerk (2020)
Synopsis: Bart Bromley is a 23-year-old with Asperger syndrome who lives in his mom's basement and works the night shift at a local hotel desk. To help with his social awkwardness, Bart studies hotel guests via secret cameras he has hidden in one of the rooms. When one of the cameras shows a guest being murdered, Bart tries to save her but is too late and, because he doesn't want to tell the police about the cameras, becomes a suspect in her death. He is transferred to a different hotel, where he meets and becomes obsessed with another guest, Andrea Rivera. However, he soon learns Andrea is mixed up with Nick Perretti, the same man he saw committing murder.
Who's in it? The movie stars Tye Sheridan, Ana de Armas, Helen Hunt, John Leguizamo and Johnathon Schaech.
Review: I came across The Night Clerk on one of my movie channels yesterday morning and was intrigued enough to give it a try yesterday evening. The movie, as it turns out, wasn't quite what I was suspecting it to be but, while I was a bit disappointed by that, I also didn't hate it.
I think the thing I liked best about this movie was the intriguing main character, Bart (Sheridan). You don't see many protagonists with Asperger syndrome and his condition made him somewhat unpredictable. Not to mention, his obsession with watching and recording people using hidden cameras in a hotel room was kind of creepy, even if his reasons weren't sinister.
There was also a great deal of uncertainty surrounding Andrea (de Armas). She seemed like a kind person and there were times when it looked as though their budding friendship would become something more. At the same time though, her association with Nick (Schaech), made it difficult to tell if she really had feelings for Bart, was just leading him on because she was trying to help her lover, or was somewhere in between, attempting to help Nick while also trying to protect Bart.
My disappointment from the movie came from it falling well short of being a thriller/mystery as promised in the description. There was no mystery about who the real killer was and, as I hinted at, the creepiest thing in the film was Bart recording the guests.
In fact, maybe the biggest mystery in the entire film was why his mother (Hunt) didn't get Bart an attorney as soon as the police made it clear he was their primary suspect. It felt as though a good chunk of this movie only happened because of that.
The film's ending also left a lot to be desired because it doesn't fill in any of the gaps, especially the questions surrounding Andrea's intentions when she befriended Bart. I still don't know if the beating she suffered at the hands of Nick was real or a ploy to get Bart to rescue her, the latter seemed to be the most logical but only made sense if she knew about the hidden camera in the room, which didn't seem to be the case. At minimum, it would have been nice to have some closure regarding that.
Final Opinion: As I said, I didn't hate the movie, mostly because of the unique protagonist. However, it would have benefitted from a few more thrills and a little more mystery.
My Grade: C+
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Here are some reviews of other movies from 2020:
Movie Review: The Wrong Missy (2020)
Movie Review: Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020)
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