Gone in the Night movie review (2022)

Ryder takes the lead in “Gone in the Night” and makes you want to see whatever befalls her dazed protagonist Kath, who mounts a haphazard search for Max (John Gallagher Jr.), her spacey boyfriend. Max disappears soon after he and Kath go on vacation at a secluded Northern California cabin, where they’re ambushed by a mysterious couple: Al (Owen Teague), who’s sullen and aggro, and Greta (Brianne Tju), who’s horny (for Max) and provocative. Max and Greta pair off after the two couples exchange some unsettling preliminaries and even more awkward ice-breakers, so Kath leaves without her guy. But Max never returns, causing Kath to inexplicably chase after her callow, unfaithful partner. She starts by contacting Barlow (Mulroney), the cabin’s reclusive owner. Barlow quickly joins Kath in tracking down Greta, who in turn leads the pair to the next plot point, and so on.

Max’s disappearance poses a relatively simple question that each successive scene complicates with new information, as when we start seeing flashbacks to a house party that took place just before Kath and Max’s ill-fated cabin visit. Eventually, Kath and Barlow’s relationship becomes the movie’s main focus, and that narrative shift at least clarifies what kind of story Derby and Horowitz have chosen to tell. 

Barlow, whose name brings to mind a certain Stephen King character, is a Gen X fantasy: he wears flannel, has a ton of money, and doesn’t like to talk about himself. Max, by contrast, is a walking bad faith argument against Millennials: he’s over-sensitive, has got vague ideas about authenticity and living in the moment, and wears vintage and/or limited edition clothing. Kath is stuck between these two stock characters, and while she’s clearly interested in learning what happened to Max, she’s also drawn to Barlow, who’s rugged, attractive, and unassuming. 

Unfortunately, Barlow and Kath’s relationship is almost as sporadic as Max and Greta’s twitchy fling. In the movie’s press notes, Horowitz acknowledges that he was very lucky that Ryder and Mulroney agreed to star in “Gone in the Night,” since these two key roles were apparently written with them in mind. But Kath and Barlow are only so interesting beyond that casting coup. 

You can sort of see what’s missing from “Gone in the Dark” when Kath and Barlow go on a stakeout to find and confront Greta. They don sunglasses and pass the time by talking about what really motivates them: they’re both running on fumes and have turned this manhunt into a futile search for their lost sense of youth. That sort of existential mid-life crisis may sound intriguing, but the movie’s plot still hinges on an underwhelming mystery about Max, an obnoxious supporting character.