The powerhouse actresses play fragile women navigating a devastating diagnosis in this darkly comic story about the secrets that bind us.
Plus IconNatalia Winkelman
See All
mk2 Films Toward the end of the deep-feeling, deliciously histrionic drama “Closing Night,” the film shifts tone. The first two acts — a whirlwind of long-deferred confrontations and fiery disclosures — lean on lively dark comedy as a pair of warring sisters explode with decades of rage and resentment. Then the film slows its pace, doubling down on doleful sentimentality as it transitions into a more traditional tearjerker.
The thrilling turbulence of the film’s start and middle make the total despondency at the end feel a little disappointing. But one can also understand why first-time feature director Cody Fern veered into such melancholic terrain. An Australian actor (“American Horror Story”) who co-wrote the screenplay with Dylan Bostick, Fern is consciously working in a rich tradition of matrilineal melodrama. By zeroing in on fragile and anguished women, he positions his characters in a long lineage of cinematic heroines in extremis.
Related Stories
