Nuit Blanche a.k.a. Sleepless Night (2011)
Language: French
Director: Frédéric Jardin
Cast: Tomar Sisley, Serge Riaboukine, Julien Boisselier, Joey Starr, Laurent Stocker
Writers: Frédéric Jardin and Nicolas Saada

By God, what a fine movie Nuit Blanche (Sleepless Night) turned out to be.

I’d been keen on watching this French crime movie for a while.

Much to my chagrin, there was heavy demand for this film on Netflix leading to a considerable wait time.

Finally, the mailman dropped off the Sleepless Night DVD today.

And eager that I was to see it, I popped it into the DVD tray pronto.

Nonstop Action

Sleepless Night is crime thriller genre at its best.

There are colorful, strong villains matched by powerful cops.

And plenty of blood, gore, shooting, betrayals and drugs to keep the adrenaline running high for the full course of the film.

If there’s a shortcoming in this movie, it’s the lack of sex or nudity.

Aren’t gangsters supposed to have a skimpily-clad pretty moll around all the time?  😉

Now, now, don’t be too disappointed because there are plenty of sexy girls around. Hey, much of the movie happens within a night club.

Tomar Sisley of Largo Winch fame plays a tough cop Vincent who’s roused the rage of crime boss José Marciano (Serge Riaboukine) by stealing his dope.

An enraged Marciano kidnaps Vincent’s son Thomas to compel him to return the drug stash.

Now the angry, injured cop Vincent turns into the desperate, angry cop Vincent.

All hell breaks loose from this moment on. Not that things were sedate till now.

This is a movie where the action starts rolling literally in the opening moments with two cops stealing the drug stash from the peddlers and killing one of the bad guys.

Following the kidnapping, the action shifts to the nightclub and its collection of gangsters and cops.

To liven up proceedings, director Frédéric Jardin introduces two sets of gangsters and two sets of cops inside the nightclub.

Before long, it’s a fight of all against all and the body count keeps rising inside some of the dimly lit rooms of the nightclub.

Outside these dark rooms, the partygoers seem to be having a good time in the nightclub dancing and drinking merrily. They’re completely oblivious to the murderous mayhem going on inside, just a few steps away.

Bit of Humor

There’s a nice touch of humor in the way the fights intrude into the busy kitchen of the nightclub.

At first, the cooks are befuddled, then irritated and finally indifferent to the repeated incursions into their domain.

One of the cooks in the kitchen (the illegal immigrant who tries to run away initially) looked Indian. I wonder who it could be!

The acting was all-round superb.

I was impressed with Tomar Sisley in Largo Winch and in Sleepless Night he delivers the acting goods yet again as the injured, desperate cop out to save his son while battling the criminals and the cops at the same time.

If Tomar Sisley were in Hollywood, he’d easily give Matt Damon or Tom Cruise a run for their money in action roles.

Serge Riaboukine as Marciano, Julien Boisselier as the internal affairs cop Lacombe, Joey Starr as the Caribbean drug buyer and Samy Seghir as Vincent’s son Thomas did a commendable job too.

For movie buffs who thrive on action, Sleepless Night delivers solidly with its endless, manic action.

SearchIndia.com strongly recommend Sleepless Night.

The movie with English subtitles is available on DVD at Netflix and Amazon Instant Play ($5.99).