Name: Retro Film Review: Night Falls on Manhattan (1996)
Item: Night Falls on Manhattan
Rating: 30
Author: @drax

(source:tmdb.org)

There isn't any sight sadder than the champion who is unaware that his time has passed. This could be applied to Sydney Lumet, whose career in last half of century spawned some of the most powerful dramas in American motion picture history. His more recent films, however, show the author who is only a shadow of his former self. Lumet's 1997 drama Night Falls on Manhattan is one of those films; it shows Lumet desperately trying to cling to the past glory by using the motives that had served him well in the past.

Lumet based the script for this film on Tainted Evidence, novel by Richard Daley, author of Prince of the City, one of the best films about police corruption ever made. Protagonist of this film is Sean Casey (played by Andy Garcia), young and idealistic New York assistant district attorney whose boss Morgenstern (played by Ron Leibman) awaits nasty re-election battle. Because of political considerations, Casey is, despite his relative inexperience, given the case of Jordan Washington (played by Sheikh-Mahmud Bey), drug dealer whose botched arrest resulted in couple of policemen being killed or wounded. The reason is in is Sean's father Liam (played by Ian Holm) being among the wounded. Seemingly routine case turns upside down when Washington hires famous civil rights lawyer Sam Vigoda (played by Richard Dreyfuss), whose defence strategy hints about widespread police corruption being at the bottom of the case. That affects even Sean, who begins to doubt even his father's integrity.

Unlike Lumet's classic works characterised by its strong connection to real life events, Night Falls on Manhattan belongs more to the realms of pulp fiction. The audience would have to accept drug dealers as Rambo-like killing machines, New York police showing the Keyston Cops skills and young inexperienced prosecutor being given the racially-charged high-profile case involving his father. Diverse but talented cast manages to overcome those flaws with fine acting, especially in the case of Leibman, Dreyfuss (whose character, resembling Allan Dershowitz, is closest to real life) and Holm. In good old days pulpish elements of the script weren't such problems for Lumet. Unfortunately, in this film Lumet lost not only his old magic, but any semblance of directing skills - the editing is poor, shootout scene looks unconvincing and cheap, and, finally, audience is bored with some subplots that could have been left on cutting room floor (including the utterly pointless and soulless romance between Sean Casey and Lena Olin's character of attorney from the rival team). Although watchable, Night Falls on Manhattan would require great deal of patience from audience and even more understanding from those who admire Lumet's work in the past.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on February 4th 2004)