Take the Night

A spare, underpowered but occasionally engrossing crime thriller involving two pairs of brothers mourning their lost fathers.

“Take the Night” is a lean drama about two sets of brothers, one rich and one not, and the cyclone of conflict they get caught in together. It involves double crosses, hidden motives and a big twist you may not see coming.

At 80 minutes long, this crime drama written and directed by Seth McTigue, who also stars, is one of the rare movies I’ve seen lately that could’ve stood to be longer. It gives us just enough information to carry the plot forward, when I wish it would linger a little longer and flesh out the characters.

The result is an engaging movie that it seems underpowered, cutting so many narrative corners that it feels like shorthand for a more filled-out film.

Chad (McTigue) is the head of the criminal quartet, which also includes his dippy brother, Todd (Brennan Keel Cook), the sort of guy to whom everything’s a joke; Shannon (Shomari Love), a former basketball star who tore his ACL and is now basically homeless; and Justin (Antonio Aaron), a mute, clever sort who expertly boosts cars and is a whiz with security technology.

Chad and Justin were in the military together, their bodies crisscrossed with scars and their minds with deeper, unseen wounds. Chad barely speaks more than Justin does, and refuses to visit the grave of his father, who passed not long ago.

The Chang brothers also recently lost their dad, and it’s left a rift between them. Acerbic older brother William (Roy Huang) is hurt that their father left control of the family business, Chang Imports, to his kid brother, Robert (Sam Song Li). Just about to turn 25 and clearly not ready to lead a major company, he’s got newspaper articles nipping at his heels and William ensconced in the next office, not doing much but undermining his authority.

Their executive assistant, Melissa (Grace Serrano), knows the ins and outs of the company, as well as being privy to the family squabble brewing between them. She’s got her own issues, with a sweet young boy sick in her home country.

The setup is that William hires Chad and his crew to perform a fake kidnapping of Robert as a gag for his birthday. Little does he know, Chad intends to use the staged crime as the cover for a real one.

The movie boasts some solid cinematography and editing, the action scenes moving with a slick kinetic grace. Overall, the production values way overshoot the movie’s actual budget.

There’s a red envelope from the Chang brothers’ dad that serves as a MacGuffin, some secret piece of communication from the dead that gets swept up in the scam. Robert is determined to retrieve it, along with his father’s watch, leading to potentially deadly conflict.

“Take the Night” has a lot going on, little narrative seeds spread all over that aren’t given enough individual attention to sprout. Justin and Shannon’s backstories alone seem worthy of their own movies. Meanwhile, the conflict between Chad and Todd feels squished and starved, and we can’t fathom why Chad dislikes his brother so much, other than he’s always yapping off.

This has the bones of a good flick — maybe even two or three — but never fleshes the story and characters out enough to be more than intermittently engrossing.

It’s now available for rental on Amazon Prime, Apple TV+ and most other streaming platforms.