Vincent is really a well-respected cop, as well as a devoted husband and father. But below the exterior of his idyllic lifetime, Vincent is involved having a very dangerous group of gangsters and drug retailers. When Vincent and his partner are caught stealing a huge quantity of cocaine from your powerful drug lord, the darker side regarding Vincent's life threatens for you to destroy his family in addition to career. In a race against the clock, Vincent must return the drugs to conserve his son's life.
Jardin wastes no time easing in to the action, as the movie starts up on police partners Vincent (Sisley) in addition to Manuel (Laurent Stocker) intercepting some sort of cocaine hand-off in what becomes an automobile chase and bullet-laden wrestle. We learn that the cops are planning to keep the stash regarding themselves, but when mob boss/nightclub seller Marciano (Serge Riaboukine) catches wind in the double-cross, he kidnaps Vincent's child Thomas (Samy Seghir). The ensuing race against time to rescue his child, which ends up involving other cops in the force (among all of them the lovely Lizzie Brocher? as Vignali) happens almost entirely within the bowels from the nightclub.
A single-location film is a feat unto itself, but Jardin makes a couple incredibly smart decisions: First, he treats the location as a character, introducing us to their various components – returning rooms, kitchens, walk-in freezers, overhead crawl spaces, bathrooms, pool halls, dance floors – and builds on the importance, eventually involving them in the action. Second, he utilizes a shrill rating, the duality of blown-out as well as shadowed lighting, handheld camera techniques and extremely cramped set pieces for you to mount the building tension that has a sense of disquieting claustrophobia. The director was consequently intent on authenticity when it stumbled on a feeling of suffocation that he refused to open up walls or build special set pieces for your camera to fit into; every location is real, and every shot is defined up within it. No Hollywood tricks are engaged here, and it makes all the difference.
In addition to Jardin's deft function behind the camera, Sisley's devotion to his role – both the emotional and physical progress of his character – is actually palpable. Whether he's breaking down in a very stairwell, beating a man in a very back room or behind the wheel during a high-speed pursuit, Sisley is giving 110 %. Plus, he does his unique choreography and stunts. Watch your backs, Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, Denzel Washington, Daniel Craig and Co. – this guy could be the truth, and he's nipping at your heels.
Sleepless Night is some of those thoroughly satisfying, endlessly entertaining and wholly adrenaline-inducing films that grips on rather than lets go. There are echoes regarding Hitchcock films, The Raid, Die Hard and Get within its frames (although Jardin would let you know he was primarily swayed by South Korean cinema including Oldboy), but it does alone justice by proving becoming a fully developed standalone piece of cinema. Don't wait for the remake that will put this one on ones radar: Jardin's version of Sleepless Night could be the original, and an instant basic.
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