The concept (and, of course, potential practice) of infidelity is explored in a series of long silent stares and extended should-we-or-shouldn’t-we conversations in this moody character drama. Last Night that doesn’t really offer any insights into the eternal phenomenon of wanting to bang someone who isn’t the person you’re married to but it certainly creates a sort of dreamy atmosphere as its quartet of emotionally dishonest main characters basically just talk in circles for an hour and a half. Keira Knightley and Sam Worthington are the sexy married couple in sudden crisis; he’s off on another business trip with his hot colleague (Eva Mendes) with whom he contemplates a night of secret passion whilst she runs into the one who got away (Guillaume Canet) and they both torture each other with thoughts on what might’ve been. These are, for the most part, selfish adolescents disguised as adults, and their doubts, motivations and indulgences sometimes become a bit too melodramatic to bear — ultimately, though, Last Night deserves credit for at least attempting to approach the dark, secret places that most relationship dramas would never dare touch with a hundred-foot pole. Worthington is good but Knightley is excellent — she carries the whole sticky affair(s) so well that you’ll wish she’d hang up the corset once and for all and just do contemporary pieces like this from now on.
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New On Netflix: Last Night