About Last Night – Film Review
Director: Steve Pink
Starring: Kevin Hart, Michael Ealy, Regina Hall and Joy Bryant
Release Date: Mar 21
Bernie (Hart) and Danny (Ealy), two best friends, each of whom have one night stands with Joan (Hall) and Debbie (Bryant) respectively, leading to two relationships developing in very different ways.
As the quartet continue to be involved in each other’s lives, both relationships are forced to question their own legitimacy and maturity in About Last Night, a romantic comedy remake of the 1986 film, both of which are adaptations of the David Mamet play Sexual Perversity in Chicago.
Also featuring appearances by Christopher McDonald and Joe Lo Truglio, the screenplay is written by Leslye Headland.
There’s still a stigma with romantic comedies, so that whenever one is good, it’s typically considered to be good “despite being a romantic comedy”. Then, when that happens, it’s generally because it’s a particularly great film and because of this anything else falls into a lesser category that, at best, would be enjoyed as a “guilty pleasure”.
So the question is where does About Last Night fall?
The answer is nowhere, in any of those categories.
Instead of resorting to any extremes, it’s best just to be truthful in saying that About Last Night is a good, simple, dressed down romantic comedy. Whatever contrast there is to be made between it and the original film or it and the original David Mamet play, remains to be seen by this reviewer, but from watching it cold, as a standalone film, it was a well paced and perfectly pleasant viewing.
While Kevin Hart and Regina Hall provide the goofier, more comedic relationship, Michael Ealy and Joy Bryant give the much more grounded and mature side of the film.
It’s all very spelled out and clear to the audience and in the way that it’s done, it works. The film may be a bit predictable and doesn’t really have a lot of complexity to it, but its honesty and straight forward approach is quite refreshing and allows for a nice and comforting piece of light entertainment.
While there’s equal parts of all four of the film’s stars, it’s Michael Ealy’s character, Danny, that takes any kind of centre focus, and rightly so, as he provides a nice earthy and dry charm to the screen. Knowing him only from the recently premiered TV series Almost Human, it’s nice to see him in a more emotionally available role (that’s not a backhanded comment about his performance in Almost Human, it’s just that in that show he plays a robot).
It should also be noted that the ten year age difference between Ealy and his portrayed character is very impressive.
All the supporting roles are often brief and extremely two-dimensional. In fact, any minor characters in the film really just serve as a reflection for one of the main four characters, but that’s alright.
While everything about this film is quite simple and straightforward, it gets on with the job. There really is something to be said about a film that attempts to achieve something simple and succeeds.
While there’s plenty of things that work about this film, there are a few faults to it. The pace is good but towards the end it does drag on just a little before its conclusion.
As well as this, the film’s modest budget doesn’t get compensated with some creative direction and the way the movie is filmed and cut is very standard. It gets away with this for the most part, but the film’s numerous montages feel very weak and lazy. They’re not few or far between but they are at least brief.
So, while About Last Night is basic and a little predictable, it serves a good and light romantic comedy that gets on with its job. If you’re not interested in romantic comedies, this one won’t change your mind, but if you are, it’s worth a look.
Score: 3/5
Written by Sèamus Hanly
