The Night We Never Met (1993)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Warren Leight

Writer (WGA):

Warren Leight (written by)

Release Date:

30 April 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

A comedy with room for romance.

Plot:

Sam has a problem with his roommates: they are disgusting, and don't seem to share his views on responsibility...

Plot Keywords:

Roommate | Time Share | Apartment | Adultery | Cheese Shop

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Matthew Broderick	...	Sam Lester
Jeanne Tripplehorn	...	Pastel
Tim Guinee	...	Kenneth
Michelle Hurst	...	Leslie
Dana Wheeler-Nicholson	...	Inga
Brooke Smith	...	Catha
Mary B. McCann	...	Yogurt-Eating Date
Naomi Campbell	...	French Cheese Shopper
Michael Mastro	...	Triple Creme Cheese Shopper (as Michael Mastrototaro)
Katharine Houghton	...	Less / More Cheese Lady
Mary Fulham	...	I'm Double Parked Lady
Kathryn Rossetter	...	Excuse Me Shopper
Steven Goldstein	...	3rd Cheese Man
Catherine Lloyd Burns	...	Deli Customer
Bitty Schram	...	Pharmacy Clerk

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:L | South Korea:15 | Australia:M | Germany:12 | Spain:13 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Miramax Films

Soundtrack:

Bad Mood

Good actors playing great characters

Great performances highlight this small story, which has a great hook and some forgivable flaws. The main themes of communication and isolation are given time to flesh themselves out in three separate stories that center around a shared apartment. I like the pacing in this film, it's slow enough to wrap itself around the story, but not so slow as to drag.

The three main female characters are all good, especially Tripplehorn as Pastel, the avant-garde artist and pseudo girlfriend of Broderick. I've never seen her do any better with a character. Broderick has a curious role to play as a man who is tolerant of others up to a point (like his view of Sciorra's illogical behavior), but still has the serenity to offer marital advice to a woman who has just put him through a frustrating case of coitus interruptus. Sciorra's character is more problematic - she has a definite fear-aggression streak that gets tempered somewhat by the end, but there's also a good deal of "tough chick" bravado in her performance that makes it interesting.

I wasn't completely convinced by all of the transformations in the final ten minutes of the movie, but it ties things up neatly enough so you don't feel cheated and leaves enough room for the characters to grow further after the final shot.