Jeff
Nichols’ Midnight Special is a quiet, patient, and powerful movie. It doesn’t insult the audience’s intelligence
by spelling everything out for them. It
unfolds like a fine novel, offering the viewer warm characterizations,
uplifting moments, and genuine surprises along the way.
Taken
at face value, it is an amalgam of John Carpenter’s Starman, Steven Spielberg’s
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Mark L. Lester’s adaptation of Stephen
King’s Firestarter. There are moments
here that freely borrows elements from all three pictures, but Nichols distills their best qualities into one package, and skillfully weaves them
together into a wholly unique tapestry of road picture, family drama, and sci-fi
wonderment.
The
set-up is simple. Michael Shannon enlists
the help of Joel Edgerton to rescue his son (Jaeden Lieberher) from the
clutches of a cult who believes the boy is the ticket to their salvation. Shannon knows of his son’s special gifts and
is desperately trying to reunite him with his mother, played by Kirsten
Dunst. Meanwhile, the FBI is after them and
the cult members are also in hot pursuit.
Like
Nichols’ previous collaborations with Shannon, Shotgun Stories and Take
Shelter, Midnight Special is a movie about the power of belief and the courage
to follow your convictions, even if it borders on fanatism. I loved how driven both Shannon and Edgerton
were that the kid is special and worth risking their lives for. You don’t even necessarily have to show what
makes him so special (although they don’t waste much time doing so) because
Shannon and Edgerton believe it so much that you immediately find yourself
believing as well. You instantly get swept
up with the characters and are rooting for them every step of the way.
This
is kind of a perfect movie. The fact
that it failed to find an audience at the box office goes to show that. I can easily imagine someone stumbling upon it
on cable and getting hooked into it. You
don’t find great movies. Great movies
find you. Midnight Special is going to
stick with me for a long, long time.
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