NIGHT WATCH
Directed by: Timur Bekmanbetov.
Produced by: Anatoly Maximov & Konstantin Ernst.
Written by: Sergei Lukyanenko, Timur Bekmambetov & Laeta Kalogridis, based on the novels of Lukyanenko.
Director of Photography: Sergei Trofimov.
Edited by: Dmitri Kiselev.
Music by: Yuri Poteyenko.
Released by: Fox Searchlight.
Country of Origin: Russia. 115 min. Rated: R. With: Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Valery Zolotukhin, Maria Poroshina, Galina Tunina & Victor Verzhbitsky.

The subtitles are easily one of the best features of Night Watch. That’s a fairly unusual thing to say outside of ‘80s Cantonese martial arts films, but it’s true. They move, shake in fear, hide behind characters, change colors, and even jump out of the way of a well-placed punch. It’s essentially subtitle typography, and it’s remarkable because it takes a unique set of circumstances to invent something like that, and I can’t think of any other film that could have managed it.

When Night Watch was released originally in 2004, it was the most expensive and profitable Russian film in years. Though modeled on a series of phantasmagoric novels by Sergei Lukyanenko, director and screenwriter Timur Bekmambetov designed this film, the first in a trilogy, to be the first Russian fantasy (as long as you count Solaris as sci-fi) and film made for the international market – hence funky, atmospheric subtitles.

All the clichés are here, though. A secret battle between good and evil has been fought among supernatural beings outside of human sight for centuries. Of course, there’s a Chosen One who will change everything and tip the scales. Until then, no one knows which way the scales will be tipped. And obviously, there’s one man, Anton (Konstantin Khabensky), to make sure it’s the good side. But can he do it? We’re going to have to wait until 2008 to find out for sure, though I have some early guesses.

It’s The Matrix, Blade, Carnivale, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer all thrown in a blender with off-brand vodka and some crushed ice, but it’s not the plot that makes it interesting – it’s how very Russian it is that makes the film so enjoyable. After the powers of Light and Dark call a stalemate, they agree both to have watchdogs police the powers of Dark during the night (Night Watch) and police the powers of Light during the day (Day Watch) to make sure no one breaks the terms of their agreements. But like Moscow’s real police and real crime rings, there’s a fair amount of corruption going on in both bureaucracies and it turns out that the Night Watch isn’t as Light as it would like to think.

There’s also a lighthearted, frenetic energy about this cinematic Moscow and its relationship to Russian history that is rarely filmed. The Night Watch drives around town in a beat-up ambulance from the ‘70s. A Dark seer, sitting in her old clothes and moldy apartment, casually offers our protagonist, Anton, an abortion potion that’s essentially blood mixed with vodka. And all around Moscow, there’s a parallel dimension, thick as molasses, called The Gloom, where things are slow, deadly, and filled with blood canticles and mosquitoes. But more than all that, there’s a palpable attitude in the characters that makes this film inherently Russian.

Weak characterizations, so-so acting, and predictable plot aside, there’s an energy and a visual force that makes this film original and worth seeing. If Underworld: Evolution can manage four weeks in the top 10, Night Watch deserves at least a few weeks more. Zachary Jones
February 17, 2006