Mickey Rourke stars in this gritty action-thriller about one man’s quest for justice. It starts as Frank, an American, visits the Middle East with his girlfriend, Sarah. But when Sarah is killed in a police incident, Frank is framed for her murder and sent to a prison in the U.S. Then, after uncovering the conspiracy that led to Frank’s sentence, his friend dies mysteriously. Now, seeking bloody justice, Frank plans to escape from prison – but must partner with a dangerous gang to do so.
“Night Walk” is a compilation of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Moroccan director and screenplay writer Aziz Tazi, one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30, is pursuing storytelling in his films to familiarize the American public with the world of Islam and the Arab world to combat current prevailing fear and stereotypes in Western culture. Tazi is a native of Casa Blanca now living and working in Los Angeles and using film to “connect different worlds.” “Night Walk,” which has wrapped filming, was mostly shot in Morocco, North Africa and with some scenes shot in LA, it has secured North American distribution via Grindstone Entertainment Group, with Scatena & Rosner Films taking global sales rights.
The film begins innocently as a prelude to a budding romance between sworn atheist and bachelor Frank (Sean Stone), the son of director Oliver Stone. When he meets Sarah (Sarah Alami), a westernized but still traditional Muslim, the two are quickly swept into a romance, though a somewhat chaste one at first. Eventually Frank finds himself ready to make the leap and they travel to her home in the Mideast to meet her mother, a prospect which makes Sarah quite nervous. Frank is nonplussed, however, and ready to propose, while the two are on a night walk. I suppose in the clutches of romance, both have overlooked the strict religious laws upheld by the government officials as well as clerics and three police confront them as they walk. Sarah, who shouldknow better, is walking bare-headed and with bare shoulders as well. The two lovers are obviously a couple, but can’t produce a marriage certificate or papers which makes them suspect. Tragically, these oversights lead to Sarah’s death and Frank wrongfully imprisoned for her murder as a coverup by the local corrupt police.
Eventually extradited to the US, Frank expects the matter to be righted and to be released from prison, but a corrupt American judge (Eric Roberts) appears to seal Frank’s fate in prison. Higher-ups in the justice system seem uninterested in helping and it appears Frank will languish sadistically in prison. While initially protected and taken under the wing of the Muslim group of prisoners, he quickly learns prison is itself corrupt. Mickey Rourke, in a cameo as the “top muscle” in Frank’s block, has even the prison warden and top guard under his thumb and cannot be trusted. Life for Frank quickly becomes a game of “Who do you trust?” with “no one” as the apparent answer. His Muslin cellmate Ayman (Laouni Mouhid) seems the only possibility. He leads Frank on a spiritual journey that culminates with his conversion to Islam. Interestingly, Sean Stone, who plays Frank, himself converted to Shiite Islam in Isfahan, Iran in 2012.
The real theme of the film is not to draw distinctions between East and West religions, Christianity vs. Muslim, the point is both have good and evil that swirl within them. One only has to look at the abuse of young people by Catholic priests to know extremism and the ugly side of humanity can play out even in spiritual settings. Rather “Night Walk” highlights the injustice andcorruption to be encountered everywhere: in politics, in religion, and in the social order. Simple mistakes or misjudgments may have egregious consequences in view of that. The opposites of love and hate, justice and injustice, compassion and aggression, and generosity and greed swirl in both cultures explored.
The screenplay swings alternately from glib to insightful, overly dramatic to understated. The dialogue of the love scenes seems particularly amateurish, but, alas, Tazi, though a keen developing director, is under 30. The more mature experienced actors make the most of passable dialogue, particularly heavyweights Rourke, Roberts, and Kilpatrick, who is running for a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his role in “NCIS: Los Angeles.” A pleasant surprise from the less experienced actors is Laouni Mouhid as Frank’s Muslim cellmate who leads him to conversion. A rapper of voluminous record and great popularity in Europe, he might want to venture a bit more in film and test those waters to greater depth as I found him entirely believable in the role of the good guy wanting to serve his sentence and go back to the world before he made life-altering mistakes.
Stone is acceptable on many levels as the hero, but never reaches 100% or even close. His love interest is less experienced than he and together they have more hits than misses. Again, however, the problem here is the script and it doesn’t serve the actors well overall. The story provides possibilities but the words spoken by the actors just don’t live up to that. On the other hand, Tazi is very young and we should see many more and many better films to come from him in the future. I’m looking forward to the possibilities.
Now available on DVD and Digital
