One word to summarise The Night Clerk (2020)? Forgettable. Because I don’t really remember any of it… So forgive me if this review is a little bit brief, because it’s kind of hard to review something that escapes the mind so easily.
The Night Clerk is a 2020(!) release that went straight to Netflix. What won’t surprise you is that it’s about… A Night Clerk. Played by the always-creepy Tye Sheridan, the clerk lives with his mother (Helen Hunt) and has a specific type of Aspergers. Unbeknownst to his workplace, he has hidden cameras in various spots throughout the hotel in an attempt to learn how to speak and act ‘normally’. What he doesn’t expect is to see anything untoward, but that is exactly what happens late one night on his shift.
So many people here have stated that this movie is “boring”. Predictable, yes. But boring? Just because something isn’t flashy and all action all the time doesn’t make it boring. The Night Clerk is heavily muted but I actually found it quite gripping… At the time. As we’ve established already, I’ve forgotten the ins and outs of the whole shebang already. So, as gripping as I found it when watching, it’s also a film that I haven’t recommended to a single person since. It’s clear that there’s some sort of attempt here to label this as a psychological thriller, but it’s evidently not all that mind-bending or remarkable when it comes down to it.
Instead, whether it was intended or not, this movie is more about its performances than the story at hand. Tye Sheridan proved before this that he is relatively good at playing characters who are slightly off centre, and Ana de Armas is excellent. The scene with the single tear rolling down her face? *chefs kiss* It won’t be long before we see her in a variety of new releases, that’s for sure. The anomaly here – despite it being a good performance – is the casting of Helen Hunt as the main character’s Mom. Why? A household name was not needed for this, and she could be put to better use elsewhere.
I can’t say that I enjoyed the ending – I’m in definite agreement with the majority of critics on that. Anti-climactic and unfinished is how it felt. (Again, I can’t remember what the ending even was at this point and I’m going purely off my notes. All I know is that it was tedious.)
Basic stylistically, there’s nothing special in terms of technical filmmaking in The Night Clerk, but there’s nothing wrong with it either. In fact, it’s pretty much bang average in general, and again, I’d elaborate more if I COULD REMEMBER WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED IN THIS MOVIE.
Perhaps this would have worked better as a play so that an audience can witness these performances in person. Personally, I didn’t hate it and really enjoyed the nuances of the characters, but it’s just not memorable in the slightest. I’m only giving it two stars for the aforementioned performances and for the fact that giving it a 1 star rating seems kind of mean because… Well, you know why. (It rhymes with ‘don’t shremember’.)
The Night Clerk is available to stream on Netflix in the UK.
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