Last Night is the story of a married couple. It’s really that simple. BUT, this story gets complex when you take the married couple and introduce the element of infidelity… simultaneous infidelity. In the interest of surprise preservation, I won’t tell you who did what, but, I will tell you what happened…

Michael works with Laura and there is an attraction.
Joanna and Alex are ex-lovers who never quite got over each other.
Michael and Laura end up on an overnight business trip together out of town.
Alex shows up in town at the same time and goes to see Joanna.
Michael and Laura end up spending the night together.
Alex and Joanna end up spending the night together.
One couple spent an intimate night together… One couple had sex.
Both are bad, which is worse?

Story: This is a very well planned story. This is also a very disappointing story. It reminds you that sometimes, when love and sex are at issue, marriage means nothing…

The writers did a great job of building suspense for what MIGHT happen. And I’m also going to give them credit for leaving the viewer with some critical questions:

Q1: If one couple spends the night together touching intimately, staring into each others eyes, spooning all night in bed, kissing but didn’t have intercourse, is that worse than the other couple having sex with no intimacy?

Q2: If there’s only kissing, is that cheating?

Q3: For the couple that had sex, if the married party immediately knew they wanted to be with their spouse while the other party continues to wonder, “What if?” Again, WHICH IS WORSE!

Performances: Kiera Knightly as Joanna and Sam Worthington as Michael portray a fairly average English couple living in New York City. Eva Mendes as Laura is very seductive and easy to dislike. Guillaume Canet as Alex is very charming and very easy to like. This film, however, is not about the characters or the performances…

Visual: The subject matter is the visual here. You can see the attraction… you can see the seduction… you can see the fear and the temptation. The predators are clear and sure; The prey are conflicted and it shows. Credit to the cinematographer and the Director for creating physical emotion in this film…

Rating: I didn’t like this film because of what it suggests about people, faith and weakness. I’m giving it a C- because it really just pandered to the worst case scenario on all fronts. It’s stereotypical, it’s expected, its self-fulfilling. I know bad things happen, but, this story could be so much better minus one element. I’ll let you decide what that is…

While it does force you to ask questions, it’s also a punch in the gut. I’m good without ever getting punched in the gut…