Nightingale - Peter e Sua Mãe

David Oyelowo is electrifying. From the moment the story opens to the inevitable climax you are spellbound. You can't take your eyes off him as his story, his pain, his need spills out all over the screen. The pain is palpable, but not overwhelming or trite. Every moment feels real, there's not one false step. The fact that is basically one large long soliloquy doesn't keep it from being compelling to watch, if nothing else, it compels the fascination.

Peter Snowden is a broken man and his brokenness is palpable, it's a living thing that consumes him and drives his every decision. When the movie ended I said, "Wow, wow" I knew I'd watched something special.

I highly recommend it.

Executive produced by Brad Pitt and distributed by HBO. The film partially inspired by the real event. The British actor David Oyelowo stars in this one man show. Nominated for the Emmy Awards, but he has won the Critics Choice Television Awards for his brilliant performance. That mean Critics loved it, but what movie fanatics say is yet to know. Along, the movie's fate (not commercially) will be decided by the common people who follow either critics or film fanatics or the both.

So it begins when an ex soldier, Peter wanted to invite his fellow buddy, Edward from the army for a dinner. Just for one evening, but his mother and Ed's wife are the obstacle. It is a big deal for Peter and he's very obsessed with it, because they haven't met since 18 years. It looks silly, but the story progression is to tell how serious it could get. Drags until the final minute, develops the story in every possible fresh angle, but still revolves around the same theme. Not that hard to predict, but how it all ends remains our intense lookout.

The presentation is very deceiving. You would see everything and believe it instantly, but you won't hear everything you see. I am talking about the phone calls that you can't hear the conversation from the other side of the line. That is where the doubts arise, because there's no confirmation of anything. You probably think there might be a hidden message or something and you want to decode it. It might confuse you what I'm babbling, but you will realise while you begin to watch it.

"I see now that my whole life has pointed to this moment."

So, if you have not seen it yet, my small suggestion is there are layers, especially the screenplay. They are not quite in order, but when Peter connects with other people, mostly with phone calls it also reveals his mental health condition. Excluding the beginning, when later part proceeds that discloses he trapped himself inside the house. Only the next half where the movie somewhat gives a glimpse of the surrounding exterior.

It seems like Peter is blogging and revealing his present situation for millions of people online. Frankly, I never get those parts. But todays people are hooked to the internet, expects opinions from the strangers about their personal lives. When the film reaches the halfway mark, by then somewhat you come to know about the Peter and what is his motive, but mystery remains as we don't know the people he keeps in touch with.

This psychological-drama was shot in a single location with the character Peter almost in every frame. Finely written screenplay by a newcomer and helmed by the 'Blitz' director. The movie was 80 minutes long, uses all the opportunities to fill the loopholes, but still few remains. Better to call it unsettled plot rather to label them as the flaws. Very original and so distinctive, one of this year's rare and special movie, but not a spectacular. And my final words, the less you learn, the more you are going to enjoy the film and you would hardly miss any important stuff.

7/10

It is a testimony to both the script and the acting in this film that I watched from beginning to end and was never bored. In Nightingale, which takes place in the home of a man and his mother, we watch this recently returned home veteran come to terms with many of the issues of his life, including his relationships, and the components of his emotional state, namely his wishes, hopes, fears, disappointments, etc. Other people in his life are implied through phone calls and letters. David Oyelowo does a superb acting job in which he travels through different mental states and changes, without going over the top which would have rendered it unbelievable and unwatchable, for me. From beginning to end, he was utterly believable as a man, trying to live, while coming undone.

Never mind Gus Van Sant's ill-advised 1998 remake: here is our ideal 21st century adaptation of Psycho. Instead of custodianship, our contemporary Norman Bates directs his spiteful and playfully sulky jabs to Mother through a video blog while eagerly preparing for guests, yet is shown to be just as fraying in sanity. But there's nothing mad about Nightingale, which ticks along with absorbing insistence, unspooling its familiar narrative of obsession and yearning with deftness and ease.

Any single actor show is always a commitment, but director Elliot Lester keeps the proceedings lively and engaging, with cameras mesmerizingly gliding through every last inch of Peter Snowden's house, while the disjuncture between long, still takes and rapid cutting empathetically mirror his manic shifts in energy, even blurring the frame imperceptibly in solidarity with his drunkenness. Writer Frederick Mensch employs every conceit in the book to stave off stagnation (including a choice HBO gag the film's original viewership must have relished). He motivates Snowden's monologuing and teasing crucial exposition through key props and devices, including his mother's makeup mirror, phone conversations, prayer, and his vlogging interludes, each teasing out distinct strands of personality coalescing into a disturbed but wholly realized individual. Meanwhile, Mark D. Todd's score lends an uneasy serenity to the surroundings, as the film creeps along with a thinly veiled false sense of security.

Story-wise, which enraptures its unravelling protagonist with The Glass Menagerie's anticipation of a gentleman caller of sorts, there are few surprises, but the inevitability with which events transpire is bittersweet in itself. But beyond this cursory human experience, which is affecting enough, there's not much by way of thematic subtext. Childhood trauma and military service are teased, but left as largely self-evident, while it's unclear if the collusion in the character names "Edward" and "Snowden" is meant to imply any sort of commentary (the dichotomy between his isolated loneliness and his consistent filming and publicizing his stream-of-consciousness monologues?), but it's either clumsily implemented or vaguely distractingly gimmicky.

As such, the film is worthwhile primarily as a showcase of its lead, the magnificent David Oyelowo. Nearly unrecognizable from his star-making turn as MLK in Selma, Oyelowo, carrying virtually every frame of the film, is comparably superbly magnetic here. Sashaying through mood swings (and hair styles) encompassing outrageously silly to pouty to vitriolic and destructive, Oyelowo masterfully conjures energy through his constant tension between frenzied movement and stillness, all the while carrying a wealth of achingly sympathetic unspoken backstory in his increasingly bloodshot eyes. It's a spectacular turn, and if, granted, he's the predominant draw and purpose Nightingale, he alone is easily well worth the experience.

-7.5/10

This is one of the most uncomfortable movies that I've ever watched, it does an amazing job of taken you into the mind of a man who is broken and obsessed.

If you're looking for how madness is typically portrayed in movies with cackling, crazy eyes, or erratic movements, then this isn't your movie. If you're expecting an engaging plot, with shocking twist and turns, then look elsewhere, as you'll also be disappointed with the movie. This movie is for those who want a character study, one of a man who is socially broken and unaware, and his spiral deeper into madness. It's a very grounded portrayal which has the positive of making the movie unsettling because of how realistic it feels.

Of course, because the movie is so unsettling, it can certainly turn people off from wanting to watch it. It's also not engaging in the typical Hollywood way; while captivating, I don't really think it's an enjoyable film. So if you like having a good time in your movies, you'll hate this one.

The feel of the movie is very similar to what I would expect to see on stage, essentially a one man show with the single location and communication with the audience. This unique feel makes the movie feel more intimate, though I can see why someone would be put off by it; so if you really dislike plays, I'd probably avoid it.

David Oyelowo gives an extraordinary performance that oozes off the screen, and feels like a real person. I actually know someone in real life with a similar personality, so it was truly eerie to see and get to know a character like Peter, because of how rooted he was.

Overall the movie was well shot and the performance was great, but it's not something I ever want to see again. And I already know that there are a lot of people who won't like this movie, as it has a very specific audience. At the very least I recommend checking the movie out, you'll know by the 30 minute mark if it's your type of movie. If by then you're not into it, then you really won't enjoy it.