Vincent is one of two French cops whose bold drug heist goes bad, leading the mobster who's cocaine they've snatched to kidnap his son.
Two masked dudes steal a bag of cocaine from two pushers. In the struggle one guy loses his mask and gets made as one of the pushers escapes. Not too long after, Victor, the guy who lost his mask, is contacted by Jose Marciano, a drug lord who let's him know that he has his son and he wants that bag of cocaine in return for a safe exchange.
The bulk of the film then takes place in a French nightclub, a.k.a. Marciano's headquarters. After hiding the bag, Vincent approaches Marciano who gives him the Zidane special and damn near headbutts him out of his shoes.
That's Vincent there in the blue
Understanding that Marciano means business, he goes to retrieve the bag, only to find it missing. Knowing that he can't leave without his son, he concocts a ruse involving a fake bag, hoping that when the jig is up, he'll have his son and have him home in time for school in the morning. Unfortunately, he is found out too soon, and is now trapped in the club with Marciano, Turkish gangsters, and two cops of the French Internal Affairs division, one of whom May have his own agenda.
Sleepless night is a solid French thriller. It's openly frantic action within the first fifteen minutes, then bottles up and becomes a tension filled action story told from within a nightclub. Trust me when I tell you that it isn't a French Taken a.k.a. Tak-oh-hoh-hoh. It stands on it's own and does a pretty good job of doing so.
Random thoughts:
- I love that they line dance to "another one bites the dust." Is that a thing in French clubs?
- I also love that he gets a talking to from Marciano who apparently hates kidnapping kids.
Oh Oui Oui
Violence? Yes
Explosions? No
Nudity? No
