''Cold Comes the Night'' is a 2013 American
crime thriller
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...
film directed by
Tze Chun
Tze Chun (born Tze-ngo Chun ) is an Cinema of the United States, American film and TV producer, director, writer, and comic book publisher. He was born in Chicago and raised outside of Boston, and graduated from Milton Academy in 1998. He recei ...
, who co-wrote the script with
Oz Perkins
Osgood Robert "Oz" Perkins II (born February 2, 1974) is an American actor, screenwriter, and director.
Early life
Perkins was born in Manhattan, Manhattan, New York, the elder son of actor Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) ...
and Nick Simon. It was released on September 20, 2013, in the UK and on January 10, 2014 in the United States. The film stars
Alice Eve
Alice Sophia Eve (born ) is a British actress. Her movie career includes roles in ''She's Out of My League'', ''Men in Black 3'', ''Star Trek Into Darkness'', and ''Before We Go''. She has had recurring roles on the TV series ''Entourage'' and ' ...
,
Bryan Cranston
Bryan Lee Cranston (born March 7, 1956) is an American actor and director who is best known for portraying Walter White in the AMC crime drama series ''Breaking Bad'' (2008–2013) and Hal in the Fox sitcom ''Malcolm in the Middle'' (2000–2 ...
and
Logan Marshall-Green
Logan Marshall-Green (born November 1, 1976) is an American actor and director. He is known for his roles in the television series ''24 (TV series), 24'', ''The O.C.'', ''Traveler (2007 TV series), Traveler'', ''Dark Blue (TV series), Dark Blue' ...
. The film was produced by
Mynette Louie
Mynette Louie is an American film producer of Chinese descent. She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy and Critics Choice Award in 2018 for HBO's ''The Tale'', won the 2015 Independent Spirit Awards John Cassavetes Award for ''Land Ho!'', and won ...
and Trevor Sagan.
Plot
Chloe, a single mother living with her daughter Sophia, operates a motel. Topo is a blind man traveling cross country in a Jeep with his associate John. They stop by Chloe's motel, when John hires prostitute Gwen, and convinces Topo to stay the night. When Gwen is entertaining John, an argument has John fatally shooting Gwen, waking Chloe up. Chloe investigating finds Gwen and John dead.
The police arriving, Chloe has a conversation with her police friend Billy who was Gwen's pimp. He comforts her while Chloe tells him she will not allow his girls to use the rooms in her motel anymore, as a social worker was around earlier threatening to take Sophia away. The following day Topo takes Chloe and Sophia hostage looking for the Jeep. As Sophia watches TV Chloe agrees to retrieve the Jeep from the police. Topo forces Chloe and Sophia to stake out Billy's residence. Billy's wife Amber answers the door and Chloe and Billy fight. Billy refuses to give Chloe the Jeep. Topo forces Chloe to break into the police junkyard and retrieve a package hidden behind the radio. After evading the Patrolman, Chloe reaches the car but cannot find the package.
Back at the motel, Chloe learns more about Topo and figures out that he is a courier who is supposed to deliver bundles of money. She proposes to Topo that they split the money if she helps him faster and he reluctantly agrees due to his new impairment. After Chloe falls asleep with Sophia, Topo looks around and finds Chloe's hidden stash of emergency money.
The next morning, Topo and Chloe stake out, learning that John was Topo's nephew and Chloe's husband died in a hit and run. After finding Billy, Chloe follows him only to be found out and cornered in an alley. After Billy has Chloe pinned on the roof of the car, Topo sneaks up behind him and interrogates him and heads to Billy's house thinking the money is stashed there. After Chloe finds the money under the bed she is confronted by Amber, whom Topo shoots. They leave after tying Billy to the radiator. They go back to the motel where Topo leaves with all of the money with another associate, Donnie.
Chloe calls the police and tells them that she was a hostage. They tell her that Billy was not found at his house and decide to leave a squad-car there for her safety. Topo and Donnie meet
Québécois mafia, Jacques and his associates in a car park. The mafia force Topo into the car and proceed to count the money to find that Topo is missing fifty grand, which Chloe has as her cut. When Jacques threatens to kill Topo, Topo kills them all. Back at the motel, Chloe packs her and Sophia's things, she sends the police away only to be approached by Topo to give her back her cut, when Billy shoots Topo and Donnie, and has cornered Chloe, who then throws him through a window, unintentionally fatally slicing his neck.
Chloe sets the scene to look like a deal gone bad, and takes Sophia into a taxi to parts unknown.
Cast
*
Alice Eve
Alice Sophia Eve (born ) is a British actress. Her movie career includes roles in ''She's Out of My League'', ''Men in Black 3'', ''Star Trek Into Darkness'', and ''Before We Go''. She has had recurring roles on the TV series ''Entourage'' and ' ...
as Chloe
*
Bryan Cranston
Bryan Lee Cranston (born March 7, 1956) is an American actor and director who is best known for portraying Walter White in the AMC crime drama series ''Breaking Bad'' (2008–2013) and Hal in the Fox sitcom ''Malcolm in the Middle'' (2000–2 ...
as "Topo" Topolewski
*
Logan Marshall-Green
Logan Marshall-Green (born November 1, 1976) is an American actor and director. He is known for his roles in the television series ''24 (TV series), 24'', ''The O.C.'', ''Traveler (2007 TV series), Traveler'', ''Dark Blue (TV series), Dark Blue' ...
as Billy
*
Ursula Parker
Ursula Parker (born July 28, 2003) is an American actress
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as fi ...
as Sophia
*
Leo Fitzpatrick
Leonardo Aurellio Randy Fitzpatrick is an American actor and co-director of the Marlborough Chelsea gallery. He is best known as Telly in ''Kids'' (1995) and Johnny Weeks in ''The Wire'' (2002–2004).
Career
He was discovered at age 14 by d ...
as Donnie
*
Erin Cummings
Erin Lynn Cummings is an American actress and online film pundit. She has appeared in the television series, ''Charmed'', ''Dante's Cove'', ''The Bold and the Beautiful'', ''Cold Case'', ''Dollhouse'', '' Spartacus: Blood and Sand'', and ''Detr ...
as Amber
*
Robin Lord Taylor
Robin Lord Taylor (born June 4, 1978) is an American film and television actor and director, known for his role as Oswald Cobblepot in the Fox TV series '' Gotham'', as well as ''Accepted'' (2006), ''Another Earth'' (2011), ''Would You Rather'' ( ...
as Quincy
*
Sarah Sokolovic
Sarah Sokolovic (born 1980) is an American film, television, and theatre actress, who starred in ''Homeland'' as Laura Sutton and has a recurring role on '' Big Little Lies''. She has performed in several plays including ''The Shaggs: Philoso ...
as Gwen
* Marceline Hugot as Denise
* Stephen Sheffer as Jacques
*
Robert Prescott
General Robert Prescott (21December 1815) was a British military officer and colonial administrator. During a military career which spanned over fifty years, he participated in the Seven Years' War, the French and Indian War, and the American ...
as Detective McKenney
*
Ashlie Atkinson
Ashley Elizabeth Atkinson (born August 6, 1977), known professionally as Ashlie Atkinson, is an American character actress who works in movies and television (with over 90 credits) – as well as in theater. Atkinson is known for her work as Ace o ...
as Social Worker
* Dylan Chalfy as Police Officer
Production
The film was shot over 22 days in October and November 2012 in Windham, Cairo, and East Durham in Greene County, upstate New York. Formerly known as ''Eye of Winter ''and ''Cold Quarter'', the film is the second feature collaboration between director
Tze Chun
Tze Chun (born Tze-ngo Chun ) is an Cinema of the United States, American film and TV producer, director, writer, and comic book publisher. He was born in Chicago and raised outside of Boston, and graduated from Milton Academy in 1998. He recei ...
and producer
Mynette Louie
Mynette Louie is an American film producer of Chinese descent. She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy and Critics Choice Award in 2018 for HBO's ''The Tale'', won the 2015 Independent Spirit Awards John Cassavetes Award for ''Land Ho!'', and won ...
; their previous film, ''
Children of Invention
''Children of Invention'' is an American independent feature film written and directed by Tze Chun. It premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, screened at more than 50 film festivals, and won 17 festival awards including 8 Grand Jury or Best ...
'', premiered at
Sundance in 2009.
Release
On July 25, 2013, it was announced that
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) is a specialty film division of Sony Pictures. The company specializes in acquiring and producing films for a wide variety of distribution platforms.
History
The group became a stand-alone division of ...
acquired worldwide rights to the film. The first trailer was released on July 24, 2013. The film had its theatrical premiere in the UK on September 20, 2013, followed by a US premiere on January 10, 2014.
Reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film gathered a 44% approval rating based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 4.9/10. The website's critics' consensus reads, "Despite strong performances from Bryan Cranston and Alice Eve, ''Cold Comes the Night'' is undone by a series of illogical plot twists." It has a score of 37 out of 100 on
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
based on 18 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
References
External links
*
* {{Rotten Tomatoes, cold_comes_the_night_2013
2013 films
2013 crime thriller films
American crime thriller films
Films shot in New York (state)
Whitewater Films films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films