At Midnight Review - A Failed Sweet Rom-Com
Together with her self-centered boyfriend, Adam, global celebrity Sophie Wilder (Monica Barbaro) is the data-face of a massively popular superhero series (Anders Holm). When Sophie finds out that Adam is cheating on her while they are making their third movie, their picture-perfect relationship is devastated. While filming proceeds on location in mexico, Sophie is forced to keep their split hidden despite being immensely annoyed. She meets the hotel's dreamy manager, Alejandro (Diego Boneta), who claims to have big goals but isn't really excited about the idea of watching performers. But after a few nocturnal meet-ups, sparks start to fly between Sophie and Alejandro, opening the door for a deeper connection to develop.
The Riviera maya in mexico (and the hotel that acts as the backdrop for much of the plot) evoke thoughts of warmth and easygoing leisure, making it the ideal location for director Jonah Feingold's At Midnight, which he co-wrote with Maria Hinojos and Giovanni M. Porta. It creates an alluring backdrop for a star-crossed relationship, and Feingold gives Sophie and Alejandro's story a promising beginning with the expected meet-cute. The snippiness in their dialogue suggests that it will be a slow burn path to love, which is both sweet and embarrassing.
At Midnight's main difficulty is that Feingold, Hinojos, and Porta created a number of possible roadblocks for Sophie and Alejandro that never materialise into actual issues. There's Sophie's fictitious romance with Adam and the prohibition on Alejandro dating hotel visitors. Because of these considerations, the pair can only get together at midnight. The stakes significantly lower themselves as the movie goes on. When tension does arise between Sophie and Alejandro, it seems artificial and designed expressly to prolong the film's running time. The tale of At Midnight is kept firmly at the surdata-face by some very intriguing threads about Sophie's career outside of the superhero genre that are left hanging.
At Midnight isn't the best romantic comedy, largely because the necessary conflicts feel less natural than they need to. The movie manages to be interesting, despite the fact that it might not stick in viewers' memories for very long, because to the sincerity of the leads. Because of the impending Valentine's Day and the current atmosphere of love, At Midnight is likely to appeal to hopeless romantics in particular. It's a delicate, delicious piece of happiness brought on by love.