Midnight Man

and fear, paranoia, government death squad, mistakes, remedy... it's all here, and more!

Max Raban (James Nesbitt) is a reporter with a couple of big problems, one, he's dead scared of daylight! So, he does a lot of stuff at night, midnight if necessary, like... scratching through rubbish bags to get (whatever), on one of his previous "scoops" he gets dirt on a politician, but then, his source hangs herself and Max is out of job.

But then, a very-small time soccer player gets killed, and beheaded. Whilst raking through a bin to get info on the Defence Secretary who might be having an affair, he finds a document with "Headless Torso" and "Pugnus Dei" in it. What's this all about. So he goes digging.

Gradually, the evidence builds up. He is followed, he sees his follower mugged and buys the phone and wallet from the muggers, and learns of a connection to a shady outfit called "Defence Concerns", so, of course, that's his next call. The boss is Daniel Cosgrave (Rupert Graves), the policy adviser is Alice Ross (Catherine McCormack).

This movie might be McCormack's most impressive performance. She is so well dressed, and really becomes the part, it doesn't seem like acting at all. She even has a phobia of her own. (OCD?) and it fits in perfectly with all the rest of the story. The best scene is when Alice "gets" the memory stick and copies it... but Daniel hesitates as he leaves... and knows that he NEVER leaves his keys in the desk lock...

Silliest scene is Alice, (fully clothed) in the bath!

The writing is first-class, with lots of especially good scenes with memorable, and quotable lines. And there is nothing wrong with the directing and production. I liked it.

Midnight Man wasn't bad I thought, but it wasn't great either. The mini-series was benefited by some nice dark-looking camera work and some good sinister-sounding music. The acting, considering what the actors had to work with, was not too bad, and the direction was decent. James Nesbitt as always gives a solid performance, and while I am more familiar with his comedy roles Reece Dinsdale is adequately menacing as the villain Blake. However, the characters are rather cliché. The idea of a broken relationship and the protagonist suffering from a phobia of day-light is something that has been done similarly before and better I think. The script was weak in places, and the plot was a tad complicated and convoluted at times. Plus there were areas where characters and subplots, such as the killing of the protagonist's wife where it could have been developed more. Overall, asides from the clichés and the underdeveloped story, Midnight Man is a in general well made and decently acted and directed mini-series. It is worth a watch, but I don't necessarily recommend it. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Not that bad. Another poster put that it was clichéd. but they had not finished watching the mini-series. OK it wasn't the best thing i've ever seen, but not a total waste of my time. OK the plot begins with a reporter (called max)who got fired from a newspaper following some kind of scandal. whilst working freelance he comes across some info on the murder or an Iranian man, suggesting there was more to the story than had been previously thought. He attempts to investigate this but has initial problems such as his phobia of day-light (bit silly) and later problems as he is constantly being set up. he begins to think there may be an anti-Asian group behind the killing. but as he is thought to be a bit crazy and untrustworthy can he find proof that he is innocent and uncover the truth behind the government conspiracy? not fantastic but worth a watch. you can find it on ITV website or other movie websites.