Midnight Special

Midnight Special announces the arrival of a filmmaker in total control of his technique as well as our emotions. A bravura science-fiction thriller that explores emotional areas like parenthood and the nature of belief, it's a riveting genre exercise as well as something more.

How the film plays out, and what happens to the boy and the adults in his company, may prove a revelation, or a disappointment, or something in between. But getting there is thrilling and wondrously strange.

The slow burn lead-up may not be to all tastes, but if you can tune in to its broadcast frequency Midnight Special will shine its light on you too.

The most haunting part of this riskily earnest film isn’t the unmentionable effects coup of its grand finale, but the quieter beats, all in close-up, that comprise its coda: atomised, spent, and sad.

You may feel echoes of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Starman,” but writer-director Jeff Nichols has ultimately crafted his own unique twist on the genre.

It starts off as a dynamic parable about faith before wilting into a glum and rather disingenuous paean to the family.

Ambiguous and ludicrous at the same time, director Mr. Nichols (Mud) claims to have structured Midnight Special as a fast-moving thriller, but it’s slow as an inchworm and about as thrilling as buttermilk. Clearly, he’s been watching too many Christopher Nolan movies.

"Midnight Special" is thrilling, emotional, exquisite, intricate, beautiful, wonderful, and inspiring. A fantastic and original sci-fi thriller with great performances and a gripping plot.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

The aftertaste makes me give it a lower score. Interesting story, good acting, all that crap was pretty spot on. It had a sliver of that feel in No Country for Old Men. Might be worth a watch for the positive points mentioned, but in the end it left me feeling unimpressed. I overate on the popcorn.

The film was very slowly paced, and was more of a fantasy film than any kind of science fiction. There are so many questions. Why would the father give legal custody of his son to a cult leader? Can you actually do that, or would the court refuse? Why do the kid's powers seem to arbitrarily be whatever is needed at that point for the plot? Did his mother somehow sleep with a glow person? If not, why is he a glow person? Why are the mother, father and father's friend all in the movie, when their characters serve identical roles? It seems that some mysteries will never be answered.

A Highly Disappointing SF Film Mashup *** Spoilers *** It's partially the casting, partially the direction sinking this film. Mostly it's a script cobbed together from "ET," "Starman," a dash of "CE3K," the Superman legend, "Village of the Damned," and generic child-in-jeopardy tale. That's the most amazing, and disappointing, aspect of "Midnight Special" - that the creative and original Jeff Nichols wrote a shamefully derivative script filled with plot holes large enough to fly a mothership through. After a mysterious, compelling first act, "Midnight Special" turns into a boring chase/race-against-time story of an extraordinary, luminous boy with 'powers and abilities far beyond that of mortal men' sought by the Feds and a cultish church who venerate him because he speaks coordinates in tongues. This boy comes from "a world-on-world" whose inhabitants watch over us. (Given the state of the world, they're doing a crappy job.) The explanation tracks more like angels from another dimension than aliens. The boy, played by Jaeden Lieberher, fails to create sympathy through all the chaos. The wonderful Kirsten Dunst has never been more wasted in a placeholder role as the boy's mom. Shannon is his hulking father. Edgerton only serviceable as a tag along State Trooper. They dodge bullets on a lumbering path to specific Florida coordinates where the boy has a date with destiny; the merging of dimension X and our pitiful dimension. Other luminous beings spirit the boy away and POOF - the convergence disappears. Big deal! A most unsatisfying and anticlimactic end that does not inspire the wonder the special effects technicians hoped it would despite Mom's mugging at the otherworldly architecture. It might occur this is a Jesus allegory with a 'birth' of a messiah from common parents. There's not a glimmer of that (save some 'fire from Heaven'). Early on, there was promise of social commentary about our over-surveilled lives. Nope. That's not present either. Also lacking, commentary about people steeping in religious fervor to fill absences in themselves. The church members, including Sam Shepherd, are bland. "Midnight Special" adds no subtext to a story begging for some. Even the title derived from the song doesn't track. "Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me." Okay, he did shine light, but the Feds - after everyone within a hundred mile radius sees the other world - still prosecute and jail Dad and the Trooper. That we're deaf, dumb and blind in a mysterious Universe is not a lot to be left with after two hours. Too much mystery ruins a film - the slight flash of light in Dad's eyes at fade out an example. Without the proper setup, too much mystery makes "Midnight Special" an uncooked, epic misfire in this dimension or any other. Give it a pass.