Midnight Special – movie review

Haley Joel Osment spoke to dead people in The Sixth Sense, but Midnight Special is a different “other world” experience for the eight-year-old at the centre of this science fiction thriller.

Much of the material is perplexing for a long time. The film starts off looking anything like it turns out. So, what do we know about Alton Meyer, the character at the centre of Midnight Special (stupid title, by the way)? In a darkened room in a roadside motel, two armed and determined-looking men plan their next move. The windows are blocked with cardboard. As the nightly news broadcasts the abduction of a young boy, the boy himself sits under a sheet on the floor, his face obscured by heavy goggles. And then, it is time to go.

But if this ominous scenario is, indeed, as menacing as it appears why is the child so oddly serene? Just who is Alton Meyer? And where are these men taking him? Is this a kidnapping or some kind of daring escape? It’s these questions and the deeper mystery that lies beyond them that drive the events.

It is at once a supernatural thriller and an enigmatic and thought-provoking journey into the unknown … and the unknowable. Writer/director Jeff Nichols’ (Mud, Take Shelter) wanted to make a chase movie about guys moving on back roads through the American South in a fast car, driving at night with their lights off. This sets the stage for characters embarking on a collision course with something bigger than they imagine.

“They’re on the run, they’re being hunted and, at the same time, they’re racing towards something important, though we don’t immediately know what it is,” Nichols says. So, what appears on face value as an urgent but straightforward pursuit soon reveals layers of depth and a mystifying, otherworldly tenor.

Now to some detail … Midnight Special follows a father, Roy (Michael Shannon), who goes on the run to protect his young son, Alton (Jaeden Lieberher), a boy with mysterious powers that even Roy himself cannot comprehend. What starts as a race from religious extremists and local law enforcement quickly escalates into a nationwide manhunt involving the highest levels of the Federal Government. Risking everything, Roy is committed to helping Alton reach his ultimate purpose, whatever that might be and whatever it costs, in a story that takes audiences on a perilous journey from Texas to the Florida coast.

The film explores the bonds of love and trust and the nature of faith. Aiding Roy’s cause are his childhood friend Lucas (Joel Edgerton) and Alton’s mother, Sarah (Kirsten Dunst).

While Mud and Take Shelter were great movies, this is not. It is just weird and fanciful and silly. The pacing is also all over the place, from frantic to positively pedestrian. I never bought the bond between father and son – neither of them is all that communicative. And what was Shannon and Dunst’s tie in to the cult anyway? Who was bringing Alton up? None of those things were satisfactorily explained. I also don’t get why Joel Edgerton’s character – a State Trooper – agrees to go along for the ride, especially when during the movie it is revealed Shannon only knocked on his door calling for help three days earlier. Nor did Adam Driver (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) impress me as one of a few limp investigators, in his case a sympathetic one.

In an attempt to be deep and meaningful, I am afraid Jeff Nicols loses his way. Bright lights, rumbling and destruction don’t translate into compelling cinema. So, while Midnight Special starts with promise, the longer it went (and it did go on), the less plausible it became. Rated M, it scores a 5½ out of 10.

Director: Jeff Nichols
Cast: Michael Shannon, Adam Driver, Kirsten Dunst, Joel Edgerton
Release Date: 21 April 2016
Rating: M – Science fiction themes and violence

Alex First