FilmArcade.net: "Say Goodnight" Review

Year: 2010

Director: David VonAllen

Stars: Aaron Paul, Carly Pope, Shannon Lucio

MPAA Rating: R

Studio: MTI Home Video

Running Time: 90 Mins

Official Website: http://www.saygoodnightmovie.com/

It annoys me that most of the independent romantic comedies that I’ve come across these days are tying to be the male version of “Sex and the City”. Case in point, “Say Goodnight”.

“Say Goodnight” is about guys, who are looking for the perfect relationship. The film follows four friends, who are meeting up at a club for a night of fun and drinks. They start telling stories about the loves of their lives and how they constantly find away to screw up their relationships with them. Now, they are they’re wondering if they should try and win them back or move on with their fun single lives.

Normally when I watch an independent film, I’m hoping to see a film that gets me into the flow of the film and enjoy it for what it is. With “Say Goodnight”, I just wanted to smash my blu-ray player from the fifteen minutes on.

I don’t know where to start. This film felt like your typical paint in the numbers type of film, as this was an annoying film from start to finish. First time writer/director David VonAllen falls flat on every aspect. I had a hard time following this film, as the use of the narration during the course of the film contributed to the film’s slow pace. It makes everything seem annoying, which takes away your attention. I’ll talk more about this, when I talk about the screenplay. The humor on both sides was not good. VonAllen makes no attempt to generate funny moments here. He doesn’t bring any energy to any of the scenes, which is needed in order to get the viewer to have a good time. The acting side of it wasn’t good either. The performances either came off as annoying or they felt cliché to the point that nothing was going to save this film. It came off as a romantic film with the life sucked out of the room and not what you need when watching these films.

VonAllen’s screenplay wasn’t much better, as this story just feels like four characters chatting for eighty plus minutes. One of the reasons for this, the film just focuses on four male chatting about relationships instead of developing the characters troubles in finding relationships. It made me not care about any of the relationships. It was like VonAllen was going to tell this story through a narration type device, instead of developing situations. The narration device is using used to help move the story along, but it’s used constantly here for the conversations that the four main characters are having. It slows everything down in the story to the point that you’re sitting there getting angry at the screen. It’s just annoying. The other problem that this film has, the fact there isn’t any funny moments in the whole film. I think he was trying to get laughs through the narration. That just doesn’t work, because it just felt like four characters chatting. When that doesn’t work, then the film is just a total failure.

If your looking for a film of this callable, rent “Swingers”, it’s much better film than this. “Say Goodnight” is something that you should say goodnight to when seeing this at your local video store or VOD provider.

Review Rating: One Star