Midnight Special. First, the good. The tone was incredible. It was seductive. It was menacing. It was creepy. It was engaging. It kept you on the edge of your seat. Finally, it had the right director. Jeff Nichols (Mud, Shotgun Stories) is still pretty new to the game. This is just his fourth directorial effort, and, once again, Nichols teams up with Michael Shannon as his leading man (99 Homes, Revolutionary Road) for the first time since the incredible Take Shelter, a movie that was nothing short of a thing of genius. In addition to the amazing Take Shelter, Mud, and Shotgun Stories were both fantastic movies. Midnight Special was supposed to be the next great chapter in the Nichols/Shannon book of greatness. Unfortunately, this was the furthest thing from the truth.

This movie felt like ET meets AI: Artificial Intelligence meets Close Encounters of the Third Kind meets A Perfect World. And none of it worked for me. For all of its good moments (and plenty), there was an unsettling feeling of where these characters were coming from, where we were going, and why I should care. At times, this movie feels like one of those Stephen King novels that, while it might be a great novel, doesn’t translate to film as well as you would like it to (i.e., Needful Things, Dreamcatcher, Thinner, Maximum Overdrive). But it isn’t a Stephen King novel. Nichols wrote the screenplay, and I give him a lot of credit.

While I don’t think a movie should handhold you the entire time, I think a little more assistance is needed than what Midnight Special provides. Specifically, I wanted to know more about what was happening with these characters beforehand. At first, the movie feels like a story about child abduction. We see a local news telecast talking about Alton, a missing 8-year-old boy (Jaeden Lieberher – Aloha, St. Vincent) who was last seen traveling with a man named Roy (Shannon). The photo on the news telecast looks over ten years old, but it is definitely of Roy. In a roadside motel room, he is watching the news telecast of himself with fellow captor Lucas (Joel Edgerton –Warrior, The Gift). Alton is hiding underneath a sheet while wearing dark goggles and headphones in the room (which has its windows covered with cardboard and duct tape). Immediately, we know something isn’t quite right. We believe that Roy and Lucas abducted Alton, and there is no reason for us to believe they are bad men.

But there is more than meets the eye here. Alton is a boy who possesses extraordinary telekinetic powers. He can do everything from talking in tongues to lighting the sky with fire. We learn that, while not saints, Roy and Lucas are there to protect Alton from both the police as well as a religious fundamentalist group who have attached their own beliefs to the boy’s superhuman abilities. Roy (who we learn is the biological father of Alton) and Lucas are willing to do whatever it takes to get the young boy to a location he has identified through his powers. However, nobody really knows what awaits him there. The National Security Agency (NSA) is particularly interested in Alton. They have sequestered the fundamentalist church group headed by a preacher named Calvin (Sam Shepard – Black Hawk Down, Out of the Furnace), who is also Alton’s adopted father. Calvin explains that Alton has, over time, given the church a series of numbers and that these are numbers that no one should know because they are classified government information. An NSA agent (Adam Driver – Inside Llewyn Davis, Marriage Story) questions many church members to determine how this young boy got his numbers, where he is going next, and what he plans on doing with them.

It is all very mysterious, which is fine if you can connect the dots on your own, feel something for the characters, and if the plot leads you in a direction where you feel satisfied. Unfortunately, none of that occurs. As mentioned, this film had a lot of potential. The tone is fantastic. For most characters, you would be willing to go anywhere with them, regardless of the story. The music is also very eerie and fits the story very well.

The acting is above average, though the character development is not the strongest. Unfortunately, you can have some fantastic elements in place and still not meet the desired outcome if the story is unsatisfactory. With Midnight Special, the first 30-45 minutes are remarkable. It’s leading towards something, and that something could be great. But all we have is the lead-up. There is a backstory that we do not know enough about. There are characters for whom we don’t know enough to feel any emotion. While we know that we are supposed to experience all of what a parent goes through to protect their children, it is difficult in this situation because of the recklessness involved in the lives of others. Likewise, I didn’t understand what the end result was. Even if the result isn’t as absurd as it is in this movie, I still don’t think we would care. There was no emotion tied to any of these characters. Also, the story behind how these characters came together wasn’t strong enough. Throw in an appearance by Kirsten Dunst – Melancholia, Spider-Man), and you have a core of actors who bring strong performances to the table but are wasted through the lack of character development.

Nichols is certainly allowed a miss. Not even Spielberg or Scorsese hit on everything. It’s a shame because I had such gigantic expectations for this film. I wasn’t expecting Take Shelter 2, but I was expecting something I hadn’t seen before that would stick with me for a long time. Unfortunately, the plot holes, the lack of connection to any of the characters, and the madness involved in trying to understand what this movie ultimately led towards were far too much to overcome. The theater I saw this in was over half full (it was opening night and only playing in a handful of theaters), and much of the audience seemed much more satisfied leaving the theater than I was. I had some unrealistic expectations going in. Nonetheless, this is not a movie that I will give a second chance to. I was fully involved with what was happening. I just was not impressed.

Plot 6/10
Character Development 5.5/10
Character Chemistry 7/10
Acting 7/10 (Lieberher was lousy as the kid. Shannon’s performance was very overrated. Edgerton was fantastic)
Screenplay 5.5 (This script was all over the place. While I like to be left kept guessing, this was maddening)
Directing  6/10 (Nichols is generally excellent, but this effort was a miss)
Cinematography 9/10 (amazing visuals)
Sound 10/10 (incredible score)
Hook and Reel 7/10
Universal Relevance 6/10
69%

D

Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie

• Signs
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