Directed by Cory Santilli
Written by Daniel Miska
Starring Kentucker Audley, Stephanie Ellis, Suzanne Clément, Acadia Colan
Runtime: 1 hour 25 minutes
Unrated
Available to watch on Apple TV, Amazon and Altavod

by Audrey Callerstrom, Staff Writer

The future that Saul At Night takes place is like the opposite of the dystopic future in The Purge. The concept of “The Purge,” if it wasn’t already clear from the nearly half-dozen movies – and the TV series –is that we would all do better as humans if we could just commit crimes one night a year as much as we wanted. In Saul At Night, the assumption isn’t that every person has a little of evil in them that it needs to, well, purge. In the film, the government has mandated that every person sleep from 10:00pm to 6:00am. So, it’s not that people need to release the evil deep inside of them in order for society to achieve peace. They just need to sleep more (or at the very least, during a specific time of the day).

Saul (actor/filmmaker Kentucker Audley) is an outlier. At first it seems like he’s a terminal insomniac. When his family sleeps, he wanders around. He runs down the street. He writes notes to his family. He sews. He stages pretend conversations with mannequins dressed like his wife (Stephanie Ellis) and daughter (Acadian Colan), while they sleep peacefully. Then, as soon as 6:00am hits, it’s Saul who snoozes away on the recliner in the living room while his wife and daughter go about their day. Only through Blade Runner-like tests that Saul attends in an unmarked building do we find out that Saul has volunteered, via a medical procedure, to be someone who is awake while everyone else sleeps. In exchange, he is compensated and able to provide financial stability for his family, but he never gets to spend time with them.

The film coasts on this interesting concept, as some well-lit night scenes and interesting locations (an abandoned theater, an empty museum, a dark boxcar diner). The central conflict, although it struggles to be one, is when Saul meets another volunteer who has to stay up all night, Amalur (Suzanne Clément). OK. Is this a love story? Do they become friends? What purpose does the introduction of Amalur serve? Amalur is French and speaks no English; Saul speaks no French. She knows “Hello, goodbye, elephant.” Saul makes feeble attempts to try and learn French. The universe this film takes place in feels conveniently without any cell phones; a number of cell phone apps could help with their language barrier. We desperately want these two people to connect through their shared experiences, but in addition to the language barrier, Amalur seems hesitant to accept Saul’s friendship, and it’s never clear why. There’s potential for a storyline here where they grow to accept the situation they are in, or forge an intimate friendship, but the script never bothers. Instead, two sad, awake people walk throughout the night, largely in silence.

Audley, who directed and stars in Strawberry Mansion which will be released this year, plays Saul as a quiet, sad man who mumbles most of his dialogue. This film could have used flashbacks so we could see him with his family, but they all operate as strangers to one another. He leaves his daughter notes, but we never know what they say. Saul At Night is a film that has good intentions and some novel ideas but doesn’t fill in its gaps. Director Cory Santilli and writer Daniel Miska struggle to keep things interesting, particularly with Audley’s understated performance. Although it’s worth mentioning that in a sea of films that don’t know how to end, or end abruptly, Saul At Night has a solid, puzzling ending that’s more satisfying than the film itself.