User reviews

I was expecting this film to have a rating of somewhere around 2 - 3 stars on IMDb. With the current standing of 5.5 stars and 33 votes, I feel ashamed of anyone who voted anything more than a "2" for this film. Absolutely terrible! Really, it's as bad as bad TV movies get.

Muscular guy moves to a house, falls in love with a girl and her mother, and...nothing happens. I'm talking about character progression -- nothing happens! Nothing interesting.

Boring from beginning to end.

This was a great opportunity to bring some great old-fashioned film noir to the great wasteland that is the made-for-tv movie industry. Too bad John Wells' re-working of an old script from a previous generation is so lacking in character development or even at times coherence. The cinematography is sub-Ridley Scott, pure noir imitation. "The Nightman" does boast some good acting from both the beautiful Joanna Kerns and the fetching Jenny Robertson but this movie's not even a guilty pleasure. Maybe good for laughs if you catch it coming home from a party loaded to the gills.

Excellent performances by leads Joanna Kerns, Jenny Robertson and Ted Marcoux raise this standard noir character study from the "mundane made for tv movie" to the level of "intriguing and watchable b-movie." The reverse Oedipal conflict this story proffers could easily have gone down in cliche flames but works precisely because the actors are all so game and convincing, especially Ms. Kerns as the fading but still sexually enticing hotel matron. Robertson is also easy on the eyes, though, and at her best in the early coming of age sequences where she displays a pleasing simultaneous mix of naivate and stirrings. Full grown, Robertson is less convincing and betrays a bit of a melodramatic streak, particularly when an elder Marcoux returns and confronts her in the boathouse sequence. Marcoux is all smoulder and swarthy mumble; I wonder why he hasn't worked more as he reminds one of a young Jason Patric (though Patric hasn't been very visible of late, either, come to think of it.)

To sum up, The Nightman succeeds when it stays with a simple line (mother and daughter both falling for the same man) and fails when it strays (the blurry and shaky finale sans Kerns). There's a little more edge than you're likely to find in most tv movies, which is certainly a plus. It's not brain surgery but thanks to the solid lead performances and the generally enjoyable noir flavor, I recommend this as a good timekiller for any fan of psychological crime dramas and character-driven neo noir. 7.5 / 10