‘Thieves in the Night’ VOD Review
Stars: Liv Paige, Sabrina Bale, Tyler Winchcombe, Wayne Reid, Claudia Barba, Sandy Button, Olly Bassi | Written and Directed by Ted Dontchev, Maximillian Fuerstein
On the run after a botched heist, a trio of thieves take refuge in a suburban family’s home. They plan to wait until morning, but things take an unexpected turn, leading to deadly consequences. From writer-director duo Ted Dontchev and Maximillian Fuerstein, Thieves in the Night is a Tarantino-inspired crime thriller that sets out its story by reference to the titles of its three acts: Hide & Seek, Deep Cuts the Knife, and Desperate Hours (from first to third).
Hide & Seek is the strongest part of this movie, as it sets up the narrative and interpersonal conflicts between the characters quite well. For example, we learn that Mia (Liv Paige) is the product of an affair that Stella (Sabrina Bale) had whilst still being married to Joseph (Tyler Winchcombe). But Joseph took her back and raised Stella as his child. Dramatic tension is also created between our thieves. Raymond (Wayne Reid), the trio’s leader, is constantly undermined by Sofie (Claudia Barba), who is itching to take control of the gang. There is also Cody (Tim Cullingworth-Hudson), who has developed an obsessive desire for Mia but keeps getting “cock blocked” by Raymond, and it feels like Cody’s psychotic nature will erupt at any moment and foil the trio’s plan. Special praise does need to go out to Michel Andriessen for his music scoring, as it perfectly captures those moments of tension and sonically raises the stakes for the audience.
However, all this good work was undone because none of these pieces of dramatic tension were ever fully realised in the subsequent acts. Arguably, the character that suffers from this the most is Mia, who takes on the role of the film’s protagonist. We meet Mia while arguing with her mother about the type of boys she dates. In this particular context, the film opens up the theme of abusive relationships, which is predominately explored through Mia’s and Cody’s interactions. However, the movie shies away from engaging with this, leading to an unimpactful third act and a deflating end to Mia’s emotional arc.
Consider the scene where Mia and Cody are alone upstairs. Up to this point, the insinuation has been that Cody plans to have sex with her (whether she likes it or not), but the directors decided not to go down this path, and, as it turned out, that was a skipped beat in Mia’s emotional arc. The audience knows that Cody is “the bad guy” (and he does do some bad things) but not to Mia. Had the directors explored this sensitive subject matter more deeply and had Mia suffered at the hands of Cody, her revenge would have felt impactful and, considering how it ended, would have given the audience a real gut-wrenching punch.
Similar examples of underdeveloped rising action confirmed that this script would have benefited from a few more turns. For instance, at the start of the home invasion, Eli (Sandy Button) hides in a closet and remains hidden from the thieves for most of the movie. But, at no point does his character use that to his advantage. He might have called the police, adding a layer of tension to the film and raising the stakes. The same is true of Uncle Ben (Olly Bassi), a former SAS serviceman. However, Ben uses known of the skills he presumably attained to eliminate the danger his family is in. Instead, he is relegated to being this mild-mannered and quite boring character when he doesn’t need to be, considering that his purpose in the film was to act as the boon for the family, and more precisely, Mia, to overcome the threats before them. If Ben had taken more action and devised an escape plan for the family escape but died in an ensuing conflict with the robbers, this would have placed the family in more danger but would have made Mia’s victory all the more satisfying. It is a lesson in knowing that characters do not need to be present throughout the story to have an impact.
What was most notable about the movie was how low stakes it felt. The family is being held hostage but does very little about it. We know the thieves are on the run from somewhere, but there is no police presence anywhere – on that point, gunshots had been fired in suburban England. Despite our social conditioning to not get involved in our neighbour’s lives, I’m sure someone would have picked up the phone! This would have certainly added a layer of intrigue to this film! There were a lot of opportunities for this film to seize and go down an interesting path. For example, when Jamal, Mia’s boyfriend, visited her during the home invasion, she could have slipped him a message and asked for help. His involvement could have been so much more impactful. Instead, we watch them break up. It is an entirely meaningless interaction, and perhaps it was Mia’s “save the cat” moment, but it came off as a “shoot the dog” trope.
As the movie climaxes, it devolves into chaos, where the cast (save Eli) all die. It is unclear why the writer-director team ended the film this way, making it seem like an attempt to tie up loose ends rather than achieving any catharsis. The audience does not know what the botched heist meant for the thieves and why they chose to invade a home rather than take refuge in a designated safe house. We also didn’t get to learn much about them except that Sofie likes to torment Raymond and take selfies whilst holding the family hostage, Raymond’s a pacifist (but still murders people and puts himself in a situation where killing people is the only viable opportunity for escape) and Cody is a straight-up psychopath. Unfortunately, the film’s main engine, the home invaders, was underdeveloped, making Thieves in the Night a low-stakes and unfulfilling watch.
** 2/5
Thieves in the Night is available on digital platforms, like Amazon Prime, now.
