kaaber-2 Review of The Night of the Sunflowers

The Night of the Sunflowers (2006)

Unless some subtlety escapes me here ... SPOILERS BEWARE

[7/10 · 16 October 2007]

• what's with those sunflowers? Well, never mind; The Night of Whatever is a beautiful film despite a slightly uneven plot that permits an aging and brilliantly acted Spanish equivalent of Lieutenant Columbo, LAPD, to dominate the last third of a film otherwise promising to catch a multitude of balls thrown into the air at the outset. "Sunflowers" is related (and can hold a candle) to films like "Crash" and "Babel" by its non-linear narrative and its description of the fatal encounters of hitherto unrelated characters. It's the film's great forte is that we actually get involved with them. The central scene in which an innocent old man is killed by our protagonists who act in the belief that he has brutally raped a young woman is stunning. We are beyond language in this scene - the characters act blindly - an mutely - on the wrong assumptions; a horrible act committed by decent, mistaken people. It may be compared with the gruesome burial of Dan Hedaya in Coen's "Blood Simple". "The Night of the Sunflowers" is definitely worth watching, and a Spanish more-mainstream alternative to Almodóvar.