Goodnight, Charlene

I watched this movie on Amazon Prime for free and I probably overpaid for it. This was absolutely the worst and I mean the worst movie I ever saw in my life. The plot - there was none. There was no background on any of the characters and not one of them had any personality. Talk about going through the motions. When the actors/actresses spoke it was almost like they were rehearsing there lines and speaking in front of a mirror. It didn't seem like they were carrying a conversation with that person. The scenery - it seemed like you were constantly looking at the same piece of striped wallpaper, or the sign at the bar where one of the characters worked at. When the characters spoke they were almost never with anyone else, and again the screen shots would have them alone spitting out some dialogue directed at someone. I can't believe anyone would rate this more than a 1.

I watch a movie like this, and I appreciate how hard it is to make a good movie. Those involved with this did not summit that high mountain. I just could got get over the awful, awful acting. It clouded anything that could have materialized as a plot.

Your time will be better spent doing anything else.

What a fun thriller!! I appreciated how the Director created suspicion without serving everything up on a silver platter. I'm good at jumping ahead of a movie as to what comes next... and this film kept me guessing. It kept me dialed in from beginning to end. The story and acting were that good. I often will sort of zone out while watching a film. That was not the case here. For me, a thumbs up for sure!

This is like concentrated Noir but in color. I am shocked by the low marks some reviewers gave it. This is a work of art. Maybe it does not appeal to those who like to watch movies with actors overacting, nudity and gore. I loved everything about it: the actors, the camera work, the plot, everything. I gave up on watching movies made since the late 70's because most of them are devoid of any artistic merit. This is one of the very few exceptions, like the Cohen Brothers' productions. If you like Tom Cruise trying to play a big boy, this is not for you I suppose.

Goodnight, Charlene is a made-to-order thriller for those who crave layer upon layer of insinuation, yet don't require that a given film must neatly gift-wrap each and every plot point in some triumphant moment of culmination. In recent years - thanks to the relentless and ultimately unsolved plot intricacies of films like Marcel Langenegger's Deception - we've let go of this prerequisite and instead have allowed ourselves to bask in a bit of unsettled mystery. Director Chris Zuhdi successfully creates such a film with Goodnight, Charlene.

Three Sands is a border town. Zuhdi himself plays Charlie, an exceedingly normal and unexceptional man married to a duplicitous spouse played by Melanie San Millan, who has given her heart and body to the local barkeep. Soon, the extramarital couple decides it's time to remove Charlie from their lives and his. What ensues is a truckload of curveballs suitable to keep even the most fiendish plot twist junkie continually satiated.

The movie commands constant attention because of it. There's no intermittent tuning out option provided for the viewer, as Zuhdi is here to leverage complication to his advantage in a film that is by no means lite far. When he brings us to its crescendo, we realize that what we've seen in Goodnight Charlene is a well-directed, intriguingly-lit indie that successfully navigates its own winding roadmap to deliver on the promise of a very solid thriller.