One Night Stand (1997)

Even if I can't stand both the movie title and the basic, braindamaged plot idea, this is not at all a film about playboys and playgirls. Instead, it is about the problem of happiness: when are we happy, is it possible to be happy, how can we become happy, how hard is it to become happy, and is it really important to be happy. The last question is answered by the film with a loud "YES!", spoken by Charlie (Robert Downey Jr.), the artist, which dies slowly by AIDS during the film. He, in this wisdom people get when they know they have to die soon, tries to kick everyone of his friends that they should look for their happiness, for "this life is not just a test or movie. it is the real thing. you have no time to waste."

The whole plot is written out of the perspective of Max Carlyle (Wesley Snipes), the upcoming movie director, which, already happily married and having two children with his wife, by a number of bad circumstances, notably the trauma of a very violent inroad by a ganster on the street, ends up to have a one night stand with a different woman, Karen (Nastasia Kinski), which is also already married, against his and her will and plans. Not really realizing or wanting to realize what he and she are feeling for each other, they both are trying to leave back into their old lifes. But Max only finds out that he's feeling empty and like a stranger there. After a year of confusion, he's meeting Karen again, for she's married to the brother of his old friend Charlie, which they are visiting because he is dying by AIDS. The romance starts again, the drama goes on... I really liked the funny end, where everyone was finally happy.

Charly is the center of the whole film, the motor of the story, which makes it work, which pushes the people to change their situation for the better. Even if some of the predications of this pictures are very questionable (i.e. IMHO total bullshit), I enjoyed it very much for its philosophing about life and its good acting and dialoges. I've becoming a fan of both dear Nastasia Kinski and cool Wesley Snipes while seeing this movie.

Fmovies: The movie didn't appeal to my wont for pure "feel-good" escapism - but then again neither did Leaving Las Vegas - and the movie follows a similar vein in exposing the uncomfortable nature of unadorned life littered with human flaws and gifts. What gave me a new perspective on the movie was the commentary that very closely correlated with the colour "unblindness" rampant in the society of the commentator. As a Canadian living in rainbow land - Vancouver - seeing mixed racial or ethnic pairings was no remarkable thing - and it didn't hit me what a large role that feature in the movie plays to American audiences. Further judgement was passed on moral issues surrounding homosexual activity and the resulting disease of AIDS. The real moral faux pas or transgression was infidelity - not homosexuality or pairing with someone who complements your phenotype - it is the breaking of trust. If the viewer is more moved by the "shocking" mixed racial and homo gendered sex than the break in trust - then it says something uncomfortable about our shaded view of the world. Divine cast.

Blame it on me, but the only reason I wanted to see this film for was that Nastassja Kinski plays in it. So for this alone it justifies being fixed at the screen for 90 minutes...but for the rest? I really wouldn't know.... It all starts with Wesley Snipes who travels from LA to New York to see his sick buddy Charlie who is seropositive. Wesley has a perfect familylife, two kids, a dog and a lovely wife Ming-Na. Everything goes fine till he misses his flight and bumps onto Karen (Nastassja Kinski, with blonde hair this time!). Everything is innocent (they go to an opera) till they are robbed and madame Kinski begs him to stay the night with her as she's still dead afraid. And of course it happens... You can't blame Snipes, Ming-Na....it's Nastassja, remember? The day after Wesley flies back home and his life changes...the most interesting part of the movie by the way as the dog smells something...! Look I could go on and tell you the whole movie but that wouldn't be fair. Nothing more interesting happens and if it does it is pure Hollywood-nonsense (the last 10 minutes are even completely stupid). "One night stand" certainly isn't a bad movie, it even doesn't bore one minute, but it's just a bit too empty and you can't blame the actors as Wesley Snipes plays his role perfect but actors are bound to the script, a script that is a bit too much like those telemovies that are based on true stories. Watch it but expect nothing, expect...well you know!

One Night Stand fmovies. LEAVING LAS VEGAS affected me like almost no other movie has, so I was bound to find this film somewhat of a let-down, but even I was surprised by how much. In his other films, Figgis has demonstrated he's a master with mood and atmosphere, and he's good here as well. The scene where Max and Karen first meet is nicely played, without too much foreshadowing thrown in. But this is a conventional plot, and try as he might, Figgis isn't able to make it interesting enough. And as much as I hate Joe Eszterhas (whose screenplay this is re-written from), I can't imagine his ending was any worse (or maybe this was his ending).

I'm not a big fan of Kinski to begin with, but to be fair, she has almost nothing to work with, and she does try. And I like Ming-Na Wen, but she's also stuck, she with a too-unsympathetic character. The men come off better; Snipes and MacLachlan are good, but really, the main reason this is worth watching is Robert Downey Jr., who avoids cliche even when his character is dying. Otherwise, you're left wondering, what the hell was the purpose here?

At first I had a knee jerk reaction to the fact that infidelity played a role in the rearrangement of people's lives. However, what got me off my high horse was Robert Downey Jr's character Charlie. Charlie was the equalizer in this film which brought everything and everyone together. The message became crystal clear as Charlie candle slowly burned out, but what better way could a man ask to leave this world. Charlie truly left us all with something to live on for, OUR HAPPINESS.... 9 out of 10

In this excellent movie we are told an apparently very simple story where life meets death, success crosses with failure, conjugal life redounds in adultery and love triumphs over it all though in a somewhat strange way. A man's best friend is dying of AIDS. He comes to visit him and that fact unchains a lot of coincidences and accidental events which will change some people's lives. This story is really made of factual coincidences but this circumstance far from being a flaw, is its backbone since life itself is full of strange coincidences and those shown here are not improbable. Life is really an orange like the dying man tells his best friend in his deathbed. What does this mean indeed? The answer is not given in the movie so it's up to you to find it by yourself. Another very important feature of the plot is the solid friendship between these two men which is revealed by some very moving deeds and circumstances. One last word for the sound track music which is also excellent and adequate to the atmosphere of the movie thus reinforcing it and making us feel it more deeply. And one last warning: prudes, abstain from seeing this movie because you will hate it not so much for certain scenes (as a matter of fact we have seen a lot of more explicit ones in a lot of famous movies) but because you won't be able to lay your moral prejudice aside in order to admire the beauty of this true love story or to understand its rather odd end. Is it important to say that the lovers' couple is here composed of a black man and a white woman (Wesley Snipes and Nastassja Kinski who perform their roles very well)? I don't think so.