Sólo una noche

In this excellent movie we are told an apparently very simple story where life meets death, success crosses with failure, conjugal life redounds in adultery and love triumphs over it all though in a somewhat strange way. A man's best friend is dying of AIDS. He comes to visit him and that fact unchains a lot of coincidences and accidental events which will change some people's lives. This story is really made of factual coincidences but this circumstance far from being a flaw, is its backbone since life itself is full of strange coincidences and those shown here are not improbable. Life is really an orange like the dying man tells his best friend in his deathbed. What does this mean indeed? The answer is not given in the movie so it's up to you to find it by yourself. Another very important feature of the plot is the solid friendship between these two men which is revealed by some very moving deeds and circumstances. One last word for the sound track music which is also excellent and adequate to the atmosphere of the movie thus reinforcing it and making us feel it more deeply. And one last warning: prudes, abstain from seeing this movie because you will hate it not so much for certain scenes (as a matter of fact we have seen a lot of more explicit ones in a lot of famous movies) but because you won't be able to lay your moral prejudice aside in order to admire the beauty of this true love story or to understand its rather odd end. Is it important to say that the lovers' couple is here composed of a black man and a white woman (Wesley Snipes and Nastassja Kinski who perform their roles very well)? I don't think so.

The movie is heart warming and full of hope. Robert Downey,JR playing a gay man with AIDS is phenomenal and well worth seeing the picture. Under-rated by critics i found it compelling and very moving. It shows a very shapley Wesley Snipes playing a very sympathetic role, different for him, plus the best friend of Robert Downey Jr,

This is a great movie with amazing actors. One suggestion for all the people who give it a bad review: Rent the DVD and listen to the track with the directors commentary (the full length movie). What I read so far on reviews, including the official ones from all the Siskel and Eberts, they seem to misunderstand the movie. They are criticizing exactly what the director did on purpose. Watch the movie - watch the commentary version - watch the movie again. It is a great experience.

LEAVING LAS VEGAS affected me like almost no other movie has, so I was bound to find this film somewhat of a let-down, but even I was surprised by how much. In his other films, Figgis has demonstrated he's a master with mood and atmosphere, and he's good here as well. The scene where Max and Karen first meet is nicely played, without too much foreshadowing thrown in. But this is a conventional plot, and try as he might, Figgis isn't able to make it interesting enough. And as much as I hate Joe Eszterhas (whose screenplay this is re-written from), I can't imagine his ending was any worse (or maybe this was his ending).

I'm not a big fan of Kinski to begin with, but to be fair, she has almost nothing to work with, and she does try. And I like Ming-Na Wen, but she's also stuck, she with a too-unsympathetic character. The men come off better; Snipes and MacLachlan are good, but really, the main reason this is worth watching is Robert Downey Jr., who avoids cliche even when his character is dying. Otherwise, you're left wondering, what the hell was the purpose here?

This movie is different from others in a sense that there's no good guy and bad guy line here. Nobody's perfect and nobody's totally wrong. However, in order to show Max-Caren pair as "unfaithful" as Mimi-Vernon pair, the event that was taking place outside the party was too imposed and simplistic. Some better idea should have come there. Extra-marital relationship is very complicated subject and deserves lot of thought. This movie at least provokes that kind of thought, though in a very simple way.

Ming-Na Wen and Wesley Snipes were over-acting on some occasions. Wesley's ad-firm colleagues were unnecessarily shown as stupid. However, Robert Downey Jr.'s part was superb, though his character was not directly related to the movie's main story. I was moved by him talking to Wesley about "life's like an orange". Some people here found Nastassja Kinski boring. I completely disagree. She was not blabbing, that's true, but look at her subtle facial expressions. One will rarely find this talent in Hollywood stars' face.

Another feature in this movie that I liked very much is the natural relationship between Black-White-Asian, which I can hardly find in a Hollywood movie unless the theme of the movie is race discrimination or something alike.

I give it a little above average credit. With better acting and little modification in the script this could be an extraordinary movie.