.MOVIE LISTINGS | MOVIE REVIEW ARCHIVE | THEATER INFO Keeping the Watch Epic fantasy from Russia BY MOLLY TEMPLETON NIGHT WATCH (Nochnoi Dozor): Directed by Timur Bekmambetov. English screenplay adaptation by Timur Bekmambetov, Laeta Kalogridis. Written by Timur Bekmambetov, Sergei Lukyanenko. Based on the novel by Sergei Lukyanenko. Produced by Konstantin Ernst, Anatoly Maximov. Cinematography, Sergei Trofimov. Art directors, Valery Victorov, Mukhtar Mirzakeyev. Editor, Dmitri Kiselev. Music, Yuri Poteyenko. Costume design, Varya Avdyushko. Starring Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Valery Zolotukhin, Maria Poroshina, Galina Tunina, Victor Verzhbitsky, Dima Martynov. Fox Searchlight, 2006. R. 116 minutes. In 2004, Timour Bekmambetov's Night Watch broke box-office records in the director's native Russia. The first of a sweeping fantasy trilogy, Night Watch concerns itself with matters very familiar to fans of fantastic tales: prophesies, legends, the balance of power, and the choices that can turn a seemingly ordinary person into the focus of all hopes and fears. But unlike, say, Lord of the Rings or The Matrix, Night Watch takes place in the here and now, in a contemporary Moscow as easily inhabited by Others (vampires, witches, seers, shapeshifters) as by the humans who remain ignorant of the supernatural events unfolding around them. Playing in traffic is way more fun when you have superpowers. Night Watch opens with a portentous prologue, a vicious battle that, though stylish, is a rare moment when the film's relatively tiny budget shows. A voiceover in English tells us the warring Light and Dark Others were so evenly matched, all would die if the battle continued. A truce is called: Light Others form the Night Watch and Dark Others form the Day Watch, each ensuring the other side keeps the peace. But legend says that a Great Other will come, and his decision to be Light or Dark will change everything. Hundred of years later, in 1992, Anton Gordesky (Konstantin Khabensky) is making a deal with a witch that will have far greater consequences than those he knowingly accepts. As Anton comes to regret his decision, the Night Watch breaks in, arresting the witch for practicing dark magic against humans. Caught in the Gloom, a blurry nowhere-land, Anton can see the Others — a sign that he is one of them. When the film jumps ahead another 12 years, Anton is working for the semi-bureaucratic side of Light. A job saving a young boy from a pair of vampires kick-starts a chain of events that will upset the delicate balance of power among the Others. Though Night Watch's twisty plot poses questions about the nature of good and evil and the fates we assign to ourselves, it's not the story that really sets the movie ahead of its vampire-flick cousins Blade and Underworld. Instead, it's the striking, kinetic, inventive-but-referential imagery, so visually narrative the story would likely tell itself without the clever, creative subtitles. An enormous, hair-raising tornado of birds wheels ominously over a building. A Dark Other plays the same video game over and over, working for the "You Win!" when his character triumphs. A bolt flies loose from an airplane, whirling through the sky until it lands with a plonk in a coffee cup. Night Watch is full of frenetic action sequences, but Bekmambetov (a former music video and commercial director) slows down here and there, resting our eyes on a girl silhouetted against a darkening skyline or a boy climbing out of a pool. Refreshingly, he rarely goes for the heart-stopping fright, opting instead for a creepy playfulness, a pop culture-steeped sense of impending doom leavened with humor. A telling scene from the similarly humorous-yet-apocalyptic "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" plays on a TV screen, but Night Watch has more in common with that show's spinoff, "Angel," with its themes of guilt and redemption. As a climactic face-off seems to suggest that this battle between Dark and Light is the same battle that has always and will always be fought, the balance shifts. What was a potentially tidy close asks new questions. The movie's sequel, Day Watch, is already finished; Dusk Watch, the trilogy's conclusion, will be filmed in English. Don't be fooled by the movie's creepy poster: Night Watch is violent, visually indelible and haunting, but it's not horror. It's dark, epic urban fantasy, where what matters is less magic than the choices each character makes. Night Watch opens Friday, March 10 at the Bijou Art Cinemas.
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