On Walking a Fine Line with Midnight Special

Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive (2011) is a good film, but it walks a fine line, and it treads closer to it than most films that have gained a cult audience that will only grow with time. When people say that Drive doesn’t work for them, it makes sense, whether you agree or not. The script, in lesser hands, would sound cheesy and the unnatural performances are close to not fitting. The timing of Drive is also serendipitous as the nostalgia for the 1980s at that time allowed the clothing and the music to work. If any of these small details were off, it wouldn’t take much for Drive to fall into the category of quickly forgotten cinema. To see this is action, see Refn’s follow up, Only God Forgives (2013), which falls on the wrong side of the line.

Jeff Nichols’ Midnight Special performs a similar trick to Drive. It plays on our longing to feel nostalgic. It employs characters and dialogue that are so close to frustratingly unclear that, as with Drive, if someone tells you they do not like Midnight Special, it’s easy to see why. Fortunately, the tone of mystery that Nichols has aimed for works, most of the time. There are so many unanswered questions within the sci-fi Midnight Special that would develop the story or characters in directions that an audience would like to go. Yet, we start and end the film learning very little. Instead, in this enigma, we find a father son story rooted in realism and packed with emotion, “you don’t need to worry about me anymore, dad”. “I like worrying about you.” Nichols’ CV displays practice in this area. The fantastic Take Shelter (2011) and Mud (2012), both explore the relationship between fathers and their children and Nichols has a sensitive and light touch that makes these relationships work. The difference here is that he has shifted them out of a world we know and into the confusing world of Midnight Special. But, they’re there and they can pull an audience’s heartstrings with skill.

Yes, this film is at times confusing and frustrating and it walks close to that line. But, it lands on the right side of it and, like Drive, Midnight Special will likely find a dedicated and zealous audience.