Figgis' 'One Night' is hard to stand

A bad start to a bad movie. "One Night Stand," directed by Mike Figgis, starts with an aside in which Max (Wesley Snipes) tells us everything about his life. A good part of the next half hour is spent showing us what Max has just told us. Come on - give the audience a little credit.

REVIEW
	One Night Stand 2 Stars At Showcase

The makers would have been much better off scrapping the aside and starting off with the second scene. In a dark room, amidst flashing strobe lights, models are taught how to strut their stuff as the credits roll. Starting with this would have done a lot more to grab the attention of the audience than the first scene. Granted, it wouldn't have made the movie spectacular, but it would have been a start.

The plot is fairly simple. Max is an advertising director who's in New York on a business trip and to pay a visit to his gay, HIV-positive friend, Charlie (Robert Downey Jr.). He misses his plane and ends up spending a passionate night with Karen (Nastassja Kinski). Max returns home to wife Mimi (Ming-Na Wen), but nothing is the same.

"One Night Stand" is hurt by a terrible script, poor directing and horrendous acting (save Downey). The movie never seems to know where it is going and with the way the characters are developed, it's hard for the audience to care. It's impossible to

Nastassja Kinski and Wesley Snipes stare blankly at each other, in preparation for a night of meaningless lust in Mike Figgis' disappointing "One Night Stand."

feel for Max's tortured soul if you take a step back from the action to see what a slimeball he is. All he does is lounge around, smoke weed, shoot an occasional commercial and think to himself how bad his life is.

As bad as Snipes is in his role, Kinski is worse. Karen and Max are supposed to be linked by an incredible bond. They were brought together by fate, yet there is no chemistry between the two characters. They stare at each other with doting eyes, but if they are really supposed to be soul mates, isn't there something they should share besides an attraction for each other's bodies?

Also detracting from the film is Figgis' inclusion of constant music. This quickly becomes distracting and annoying for the viewer. Several times throughout the film, characters are whispering things to each other that are drowned out by the background music. This happens during key moments, where it is more important to hear what the characters are saying than to see them reacting to each other.

Figgis also ends almost every scene by cutting to a black screen and then back to the action. This serves no purpose except to accentuate the fact that "One Night Stand" is a jilted movie that has no flow.

After Max has spent some time in Los Angeles, the movie jumps a year ahead, as Max returns to New York to be with a dying Charlie. Despite a few dopey lines, Downey gives an excellent performance that allows the audience to understand his suffering. It's hard not to shudder as Charlie's body twists in pain on the hospital bed. Although his advice to Max may not be that profound, Downey's delivery is. You're left sitting on the edge of your seat, as he struggles to mix his words with breaths on an oxygen machine, never knowing which breath will be his last.

Not surprisingly, while in the New York area, Max has another encounter with Karen. What ensues is one of the few unexpected and well-done sequences of the movie. The last 20 minutes come out of nowhere to salvage an otherwise weak and unenjoyable movie.

Brought down by bad acting, writing and directing, "One Night Stand" lacks the chemistry and emotion between characters that is necessary for it to work.

Robert Downey Jr. takes time out of his busy felony schedule for "One Night."

11-18-97