Still of the Night

Directed by Robert Benton, Still of the Night follows psychiatrist Sam Rice (Roy Scheider) as finds himself embroiled in a criminal case involving the beautiful mistress (Meryl Streep’s Brooke Reynolds) of a murdered patient (Josef Sommer’s George Bynum). It’s familiar yet promising subject matter that is, at the outset, employed to less-than-spellbinding effect by Benton, as the filmmaker, armed with his own screenplay, delivers an almost unreasonably deliberate endeavor that initially contains few compelling, attention-grabbing attributes – with the arms-length atmosphere perpetuated by ineffective suspense sequences and an overly meandering narrative. There’s little doubt, then, that Still of the Night improves considerably as it progresses into an increasingly engrossing midsection and second half, with the picture’s transformation from dull to captivating triggered by a terrific (and genuinely tense) sequence set within a crowded auction house – which, when coupled with a somewhat ludicrous yet completely enthralling climax (eg Streep offers up a striking monologue that unfolds in an impressive single take), ultimately does cement the movie’s place as a rewarding Hitchcock homage that gets better and better as it unfolds.

*** out of ****