BITE-SIZED REVIEW: Sleepless Night (2011)

I first heard about this movie a few months back, right around the time publicity started dropping for the American remake starring Jamie Foxx. I heard the original was worth a look, so I popped it on.

The premise is simple: a dirty cop hijacks a drug shipment for a notorious gangster. Recognised during the robbery, his son is kidnapped. The gangster has to hand the drugs off to a buyer and will kill his son if he does not get the drugs by nightfall.


The cop brings the drugs to the gangster's club. As a precaution, he hides the drugs in the club before meeting the gangster. But when the cop goes to collect the drugs, he finds the bag gone. Now he is in a desperate race against time to retrieve the drugs before his son is killed.


Wow. This movie is great!


What I didn't mention in the plot synopsis is that most of the movie takes place inside the gangster's crowded nightclub. It's like Taken set in a locked room. What's great about this movie is that it keeps layering on the obstacles in our protagonist's path.


On top of that, throw in two internal affairs cops, the gangster's unscrupulous drug buyer, the crowd of patrons AND a bleeding stomach wound. This movie is fit to burst.


It is the equivalent of trying to spin plates while jumping over a skipping rope, defusing a nuclear bomb and performing open heart surgery, all at the same time.

This movie never lets up, and director Frederic Jardin manages to keep piling on the peril without making the movie feel contrived or over-stuffed. Lead performer Tomer Sisley is fantastic as the increasingly deranged centre of the action.

No spoilers. This movie's great. Watch it.