Clumsy Racial Themes Cloud French Noir Thriller

A Black locksmith runs afoul of ruthless gangsters after opening the wrong door in a European city wracked by Black Lives Matter protests. Night Call gets style points as a slickly-shot crime noir thriller, but dramatically fails with illogical exposition and a flawed use of racial unrest to drive the narrative. The easily duped protagonist becomes the textbook “Magical Negro” stereotype common in cinema and railed against by filmmaker Spike Lee. Our hero throws self-preservation to the wind for eye-rolling gallantry when he could have rectified his own dire situation.

On a fateful night in Brussels, Belgium, Whiz-Lock employee Mady Bela (Jonathan Feltre) dutifully answers his cell and responds to those in need. He drills through locked doors to help hapless inhabitants back into their abodes for 250 Euros. Mady listens to classic musical CDs until a call from Claire (Natacha Krief) leads him to a convenience store. He follows her to a nearby apartment. Claire doesn’t have any ID to prove this is her residence. She swears it’s on a living room table and will grab it as soon as the door is opened.

A Deadly Ultimatum

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After responding to an emergency call from a mysterious woman, a young locksmith gets unwittingly caught in the crosshairs of a ruthless mob boss.

Release Date

January 17, 2025

Director

Michiel Blanchart

Runtime

97 minutes

Cast

Jonathan Feltre
, Natacha Krief
, Jonas Bloquet
, Romain Duris
, Mustii
, Sam Louwyck
, Laura Masci
, Claire Bodson
, Graham Guit
, Marco Maas
, Guillaume Kerbusch
, Carole Trevoux
, Toni D’Antonio
, Valentin Wilbaux

Writers

Michiel Blanchart
, Gilles Marchand

Producers

Nicolas Duval Adassovsky
, Michael Goldberg
, Boris Van Gils

Pros

• Michiel Blanchart’s direction is extremely stylish, and the action and chase sequences are wonderfully filmed.

Cons

• Clouding the film with racial themes creates mixed messaging and distractions.
• Characters make truly illogical choices in a frequently unbelievable film.

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Mady waits outside as Claire breezes in and out. Uh oh, she doesn’t have any cash. Can he wait here? She’ll run to an ATM and be back in a jiffy. Minutes pass before Mady realizes he’s been snookered. He enters the apartment, finding alarming paraphernalia and no sign that Claire actually lives there. His annoyance turns to dread as the real owner arrives and isn’t happy to see a stranger poking around.

I’m no locksmith, but would guess this exact scenario is probably the most common scam faced in the profession. Why would anyone who’s done the job for more than five minutes be so easily fooled? The answer is they wouldn’t. No locksmith would allow an unknown individual to walk away without paying after the door was opened. Night Call requires immediate suspension of disbelief to accept the premise within minutes of the opening act. That becomes a fire hose when the bloody action that follows kicks the plot into high gear.

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Ponderous Racial Themes

The rub is that Mady has until morning to find Claire and what she stole, or an extremely irate crime boss (Romain Duris) will make sure he never drills a lock again in the mortal world. The odyssey that follows has its fair share of plot twists and turns, but every character involved in the fray lacks any semblance of common sense. It’s impossible to discuss specifics without delving into spoiler territory, but we can focus on the racial backdrop to make a critical point.

Director/co-writer Michiel Blanchart, technically astute in his debut feature, leans heavily on George Floyd’s murder and the global BLM response to frame his story. Night Call has a similar incident galvanizing the city. Mady sees the police reaction against the protesters and how Blacks are being violently treated. He doesn’t believe law enforcement will help him and decides to take matters into his own hands. To be clear, his trepidation has merit and is understandable. But he could easily have called a lawyer, news outlet, or even a friend to explain the situation. Mady would at the very least have allies on his side. Then there wouldn’t be a reason for baddies to chase him around Brussels all night.

A similar practical response would have helped the antagonist. He correctly surmises that Mady isn’t the thief and sets him on a recovery mission with painful death as motivation. A master criminal should have been able to whittle down the list of suspects to those who knew what was in the apartment. If a secret is only known by a select few, why not round up those people and start connecting the dots? Night Call’s second act gets your adrenaline flowing, but once again, the characters get bogged down by needless complications. Rats are easy to catch with just a sliver of cheese.

Let’s focus on what works for pure entertainment value. Night Call looks good with sharp camera placement, cinematography, and editing. Blanchart utilizes long tracking shots that weave through buildings and streets in tense action scenes. One in particular is a standout gem that may be worth the price of admission for those unbothered by script details. Mady should have been an escape artist instead of a locksmith.

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Mady continually risks himself to save others when it’s obvious they wouldn’t do the same for him. Would his nobility have the same impact if he were a white character with white adversaries and a similar mistrust of the police? What’s Blanchart’s actual message with the protest themes? That Mady, a hoodwinked innocent man, is no different than George Floyd, and becomes a target just for being Black? It’s difficult to view the film through a narrow action lens when Night Call’s racial aspects are ponderous and heavy-handed from the start.

Night Call, originally titled La Nuit Se Traîne, has French dialogue with English subtitles. It is a production by Gaumont, Daylight Films, and Formosa Productions et al. Night Call will be released theatrically in the US on January 17th from Magnet Releasing. You can find theaters, showtimes, and tickets here.

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