If Mos Def isn’t careful, people will begin to call him an actor before they consider his music. In another stand-out supporting role, Mos Def used his gifts of subtlety, facial expressions, and his ear for dialects to literally carry a sometimes shaky Journey to the End of the Night.
He has owned and managed his brothel for almost twenty-years and is unable to return to the United States for some unknown reason. But Rosso is ready to retire and move to a more relaxed life in northern Brazil with his wife, Angie (Catalina Moreno, Maria Full of Grace), a former prostitute in his brothel, and their son.
The brothel will then belong to Rosso’s son Paul (Fraser), a junkie and gambler with crippling debts, an entrenched hatred of his father, and a passion for his father’s wife, Angie. But Paul, like his father, is also trapped, chained to the brothel for a meager income that is a perpetual reminder to both men of their own fetid souls. It is this desperation that drives the men, father and son, into a one-time drug deal, a deal with the potential to set both men free.
However when the movie opens, we see fate toying with Rosso and Paul’s dreams like a cat with a mouse. The drug mule for their deal is hilt-deep in a tantric tussle with a transvestite when he suddenly dies. When news of the drug mule’s demise reaches the brothel, both men are concerned, but they handle the situation in very different ways. Paul (Fraser) begins his slow descent into madness. Paul calls Angie, his sometimes lover and actual father of the son Rosso believes to be his own, and wails that the drug deal is their only chance to leave Brazil together. For you see, Paul intends to rob Rosso of his money, and leave the country with both his family and money.
And the movie revolves around this one night, a night that seems never ending because so much is at stake. Rosso and Paul have their futures and seemingly their souls at stake and the innocent Wemba has staked his life on this journey. The night, which adds a claustrophobic, ominous weight to the movie, becomes a character as we see the various creatures that prowl and lurk the streets. One wonders if there will ever be a morning, a ray of sunlight to disperse the oppressive hell that rides with us and Wemba on the journey to the drug dealers. A journey fraught with Grecian trials as fate tries everything to bring down our innocent hero. For this one night, Wemba is the Odysseus sailing the nocturnal streets of Sao Paulo.
I highly recommend Journey to the End of the Night if for no other reason than it is a marvelous study in setting, mood, and the Herculean efforts of Ulrich Burtin, the cinematographer for the project. Burtin mentions in the extras that he used various camera angles including shots from ground level, but also numerous light filters including yellow, red, and blue each of which brought out another aspect of the character’s personalities, including that of the Sao Paulo night.
My only real gripe with the film is Paul (Fraser) is at times, over-the-top. I’m uncertain whether the character was written that way or if Fraser, in an attempt to actually act, simply pushes the character too far. There are moments of empathy and sadness for Paul’s tortured life, but they are brief. One could also attribute the Khrushchevian shoe banging acting to Paul’s drug abuse which can easily erase the fine line between humanity and living parody.
The extras included a “making-of” feature that I already alluded to. The feature consists of interviews with the actors, Mr. Eason, and Mr. Burtin. The only real insights involved Eason’s personal traveling experiences and Burtin’s shop talk. If a fan of the mechanics and art of cinematography, Mr. Burtin is happy to tell all.
So what’s my final word? This is a film worth seeing. I don’t recommend you watch it with your kids because it deals with some harsh realities. The movie is rated-R for violence, language, sex, and drug content; so it’s not for the pure of heart, but life isn’t sugar-coated either. For any students in the audience, this film screams to be part of a comparative Greek literature paper.
Journey to the End of the Night is another example of what Mr. Eason is trying to bring to cinema. His ability to lay humanity bare is a welcome sight in an industry of fantasy.
Journey to the End of the Night is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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