One Night Stand (1997)

Last week, Robert Downey Jr.’s highly anticipated holiday action thriller, Sherlock Holmes, was released, and it finished in second place at the box office behind Avatar.  It clearly demonstrates Downey Jr.’s full throttle surge into the role of a solid A-list leading man, a far cry from where his career was 15 years ago.  His story is one of a man who was able to overcome the demons of addiction and it’s resulted in astounding success.  However, part of me will miss the offbeat, quirky, and often astonishing roles he had in the mid to late 1990’s with Restoration, Two Girls and a Guy, Black and White, and Mike Figgis’s One Night Stand.

In One Night Stand, Wesley Snipes plays Max, a successful commercial director who visits his ailing best friend, Charlie (played wonderfully by Robert Downey Jr. here) while on the East Coast for a job.  Max misses his flight back home and ends up spending the night with a mysterious woman, Karen (Natassja Kinski).  A year later, as Charlie’s illnesses enter their final stages, Max returns to New York to discover the mystery woman is actually Charlie’s sister-in-law.  And for Max and Karen, things pick up right where they left off.

While not exactly the most original concept, Mike Figgis does a great job directing his performers and maintaining the gloomy tone throughout the story.  It never wanders too far off the reservation where Max, Karen and their spouses are all brought together in the wake of tragedy revolving around Charlie’s pending demise.  With Max and Karen, this isn’t the kind of love story where they walk through the park with a sunny day montage.  Their feelings for each other are birthed out of sorrow, confusion, and hopelessness.  Ming-Na plays Mimi, Max’s bored wife going through the robotic motions of being a domesticated woman, secretly yearning for her wild side to come out more often.  Kyle McLachlan also gives a great turn as Charlie’s conservative brother, Vernon.  It’s funny how much we learn about characters in little details.  It tells us a lot about Vernon by the way he always wears rubber gloves when helping tend to his own brother.

Robert Downey Jr.’s performance, however, is what really makes this worth watching.  Every exchange between Charlie and Max leaves you bewildered.  His portrayal of Charlie is done with the kind of intensity, raw honesty, and pain many actors hope to create onscreen, but rarely attain.  You feel sorrow for this character.  You sense the indignant tone in his voice in the beginning when Max offers help for medical expenses.  You feel pain when Charlie’s forced to sacrifice dignity by asking Max to help him look his best for visitors who come after he soils himself.  And even when half-covered by an oxygen mask, his facial expression is hilarious when he catches Max and Karen in a stolen moment’s kiss.

One Night Stand is definitely worth watching for its performances, especially from Downey, Jr.  It takes courage for a straight actor to play a homosexual on the screen, but even more courage to exhibit a poignant and realistic portrayal of a man dying of AIDS.  Many of the roles he played in the mid to late 90’s were the kind an actor will take chances with at a crossroads in his career.  Luckily, Robert Downey, Jr. he was able to clean up and accelerate into superstardom, ensuring we will be seeing him in big studio films for years to come.  However, I do hope to see him return to these smaller but daring roles in the future.  Not only will it allow him to push the envelope of his talents. but he’ll be able to give performances that elevate otherwise forgettable films.

You can get a copy of One Night Stand on Amazon through this link, and we’ll make a little bit of money at the same time.