'Night Always Comes' review: A bright star amid the darkness

WHAT IT'S ABOUT The Netflix movie "Night Always Comes" features Lynette (Vanessa Kirby) searching for thousands of dollars over the course of a night so that she can keep the home she shares with her mother, Doreen (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and brother Kenny (Zack Gottsagen).

This involves a journey to some dark places for Lynette and, eventually, Kenny, who has Down syndrome and gets swept along for the all-nighter.

Co-stars include Julia Fox ("Uncut Gems"), Randall Park (Agent Jimmy Woo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), Michael Kelly ("House of Cards"), Stephan James ("Homecoming") and the film director/part-time actor Eli Roth ("Hostel"). Director Benjamin Caron has helmed episodes of "Andor" and "The Crown," among other credits. The screenwriter is Sarah Conradt ("Mothers' Instinct").

MY SAY Things go from bad to worse for Lynette over the course of the movie, with hardly a moment of joy or light to break through the darkness.

An adaptation of a Willy Vlautin novel, "Night Always Comes" goes down this path with integrity. It never compromises in its depiction of a woman forced to take dramatic, even criminal measures to save her family. 

The surface feels right, with the pitch black Portland, Oregon, night and all that it contains evocatively reflecting Lynette's desperation.

Kirby relishes the opportunity to immerse herself in this world, to give the sort of gritty performance we haven't often seen from an actor whose credits include playing Princess Margaret in "The Crown" and Sue Storm in the new "Fantastic Four" movie. It's strong, determined work.

The problems emerge when you look for something below the neo-noir aesthetic and the all-encompassing grime.

It's not that the movie needs to say something sweeping or consequential about the lives of Americans living in such despairing circumstances. It just has to at least offer some entertainment value or genuine tension or, well, something beyond the gloom and doom.

There's little effort made to do that.

The siblings' relationship, one of the areas that had the potential for further exploration, is rendered as little more than a plot device. 

The storytelling itself could be crisper, particularly when it relies on several convolutions. The whole long night for Lynette, for example, begins when her mother spends $25,000 on the down payment for a car, instead of the house, without any warning. The picture would have benefited from a more convincing exploration of the socioeconomic circumstances that have brought the family here.

The supporting characters are one-dimensional and subject to the whims of the writing. At least one of them changes his whole demeanor because a scene demands it, shifting from sympathetic to villainous without warning.

Eventually, it starts to all feel like as much of a slog for the audience as it has been for Lynette. She wants to be as far away as possible from all of this and we second that emotion.

BOTTOM LINE It gets the style right and Kirby is first-rate, but the movie is a chore to watch.