Is The Night Clerk any good? – Complete Review

A thriller makes a spying hotel clerk who happens to be bordering autistic, its prime suspect in a murder.

The Sheridan plays a young man with Asperger’s syndrome who accidentally witnesses a murder in Michael Cristofer’s latest thriller. The film also features Ana de Armas, John Leguizamo, and Helen Hunt.

1. Quick Review

The Night Clerk presumes to be a thriller. The story is about a hotel clerk who accidentally witnesses the murder of one of his guests. He winds up becoming a suspect himself.

That the title character has Asperger’s syndrome adds several new elements to the mix that feel underdeveloped. Despite a terrific cast that includes rising star Ana de Armas (of Knives Out fame), the film has many loopholes and plot holes left untied.

There’s still something in Sheridan and de Armas that shows you why they’re stars on the rise. Both actors find little beats through the film in which their charisma shines.

It has been filmed to look something like a modern noir. Sheridan looks like he stepped out of ’40s cinema. His character and a perfect femme fatale like Ana de Armas, should have made The Night Clerk more fun.

2. Is it worth watching?

The results aren’t fully satisfying on many levels. It’s hard to discern exactly what the new film, written and directed by Michael Cristofer, is trying to be. The premise is certainly workable enough for a Hitchcock-style thriller.

THE NIGHT CLERK Trailer (2020)

However, the film seems to treat the murder and the mystery of the identity of the culprit, as an afterthought. The attempts at comic relief are often wildly inappropriate and come across as both gratuitous and exploitative.

For an alleged psychological thriller, The Night Clerk has no thrills, suspense, or tension. Young Mr. Sheridan is nothing less than interesting and quirky, but everyone else seems zombified.

It’s serviceable and effective. However, it lacks any sharp twists and turns to keep die-hard mystery fans guessing. Fortunately, the characters are interesting enough that they make the movie worth a watch.

I. Plot

Bart (played by Tye Sheridan) is a young man with Asperger’s Syndrome. He also happens to be a voyeur. He works as the night clerk at a reasonably nice hotel, where he’s placed cameras in several of the rooms. He tells himself that he watches the recordings to learn how people interact.

One night he sees a female guest (played by Jacque Gray) getting involved in a violent altercation with a man. By the time Bart rushes to the room, the woman is dead of a gunshot wound. Needless to say, he soon becomes a prime suspect for the police detective (played by John Leguizamo) assigned to the case.

Bart meets another guest, Andrea (played by Ana de Armas), not long after. She seems perfectly at ease with his social awkwardness. The two strike up a friendship peppered with flirtation. Bart begins to interpret her warmth as a romantic interest, but can she be much more than a coincidental femme fatale?

II. Music & Visuals

The music director of this film is Erik Hall. He is an American musician and film score composer popular in his field for composing classical music.

The soundtrack holds songs featuring Justin Bieber’s Intentions, Bazzi’s Young And Alive, Lil Baby’s Live Off My Closet, Ladonsyl’s Only Bae, and Quando Rondo’s Blue Opps. The film’s soundtrack is available to stream on YouTube Music, Google Play Music, and Spotify.

In the film, director Michael Cristofer tries to show how easy — and inexpensive — technology has made it for regular folk to spy. He asks the question of why Bart wires the rooms with cameras to turn voyeurism on its head. His aims aren’t prurient so much as educational. Yet, they remain troubling, until the film’s surprisingly unmoving resolution.

3. Final Thoughts

Representation of mental and developmental disorders through literature is extremely important for inclusivity. That being said, the way Bart’s Asperger’s is used to heighten the drama can make some people uncomfortable.

Especially considering Sheridan isn’t on the spectrum. The murder mystery is intriguing, as well as Bart and Andrea’s relationship. It just seems as though Bart’s Asperger’s is more so a gimmick than anything else.

Director Cristofer, a TV and movie veteran, is probably best-known as a playwright. In an interview, he has said that Bart was inspired by someone he actually knows. Yet The Night Clerk is no character study.

Bart’s Asperger’s becomes almost a cheap screenwriting tool for Cristofer. He uses it as a way to (sort of) justify the fact that he’s spying on people in their hotel rooms. The protagonist’s condition moderates whenever the story requires it. He uses it as a plot plodder, something that he inconsistently uses in the semi-mystery that follows.

Inert to such a degree that one wonders if the film has been slowed down, The Night Clerk doesn’t really go anywhere. This film doesn’t push for a sequel, and nothing about this storyline makes you clamor for another.

4. Grade

5. Info