Midnight Special a ride into exquisite tension
Nichols’ latest work keeps you guessing
In a Jeff Nichols’ movie, you find out what’s going on at the same time as the characters do. It’s an exquisite tension that sends imagination into overdrive and it’s only one of the many reasons viewers become obsessed with this filmmaker.
Midnight Special, like other Nichols’ movies such as Take Shelter or Mud, is a mystery you can’t quite solve.
What you learn is that a man (Michael Shannon) is on the run with his young son (Jaeden Lieberher), a child with special gifts. The boy has to wear goggles and other protective gear because he is somehow more open to the universe than the rest of us; he knows things, he sees things and he experiences things that others cannot.
The boy and his father, accompanied by the father’s friend (Joel Edgerton), are attempting to get to a certain place at a certain time. Pursuing them are the police, who believe the boy to have been abducted, the FBI, who want to know how the kid has access to sensitive classified information, and a religious cult, the members of which regard the boy as a prophet at the very least.
Midnight Special is a sci-fi chase movie, a suspenseful undertaking that keeps you wondering almost until the very last. (And the less you know going in, the better.)
As the father, Shannon is a viewer’s entree into the story. He doesn’t really understand why his son has these gifts or what they mean, but his unconditional love for his child guides him forward. He has faith that the boy’s instructions should be followed.
There are obvious religious interpretations available here, but they, like many other possible meanings to it all, are mostly in the eye of the beholder.
As a metaphor for the strange journey that is parenthood, Midnight Special is a kind of genius; it captures perfectly the vast unknown potential and the monumental responsibility willingly embraced by anyone who has raised a child.
Alas, for this viewer, the movie’s ending does not make sense on a visual level given what has gone before. Or rather, what has not gone before.
It works emotionally, however, so it’s doubtful fans of writer/director Nichols’ work will be put off.
The movie has its flaws, but it is nonetheless an intriguing sci-fi entry and an engaging story about family.
Besides Shannon, Edgerton and child-star Lieberher, the cast includes Adam Driver, Sam Shepard and Kirsten Dunst — none too shabby.
Midnight Special has deeply unsettling music (we mean that in the best way) from David Wingo and cinematographer Adam Stone, like Shannon, has been a presence in all five of Nichols’ films.
All good signs, in case you were looking.