Long Day’s Journey Into Night

½

Don’t be confused. This is not a film version of the classic O’Neill play. In fact, the two seem to have absolutely nothing in common, so I cannot imagine why this title was chosen when the best translation of the original Chinese title appears to be, “The Last Night of the Earth.” Though that name doesn’t make much sense either; not much does in this strange film. Director Gan Bi eschews any semblance of a standard narrative in favor of mood and aesthetics. The story involves lost love, a murdered friend, and a man returning to his home town after many years. Though that basic plot matters only as a backdrop to explore love, pain, regret, self-doubt, anger, loss, resentment, etc. What is really on display here is a range of sad emotions in evocative locales. The imagery is sometimes quite stunning and always full of mood. I suppose if I were being generous I would call this avant-garde, but the truth is I was bored to tears. And this was not a short excursion; the film clocks in at almost 2½ hours. Had it been 90-minutes long, I might have felt far more positively about it. But the damn thing just went on and on, hour after inexplicable hour. Several times I thought we had come to the end, it seemed like as good a place to stop as any, and yet the film kept going. And then, randomly, at one of those times, it was over. But just to spice things up for the viewer, at about an hour in, the protagonist goes into a movie theater and puts on 3D glasses. The audience is then invited to do the same and the film shifts to 3D for the remainder of its time. Why? Hell if I know. There was absolutely no advantage to watching it in 3D. I am sure Gan has a reason for doing this, but is it avant-garde or just pretentious? I don’t know and, more importantly, I don’t care. The movie wasn’t a total loss; it was honestly quite beautiful. That just isn’t enough to sustain a film that otherwise kept me entirely lost and disconnected.