Heart of Midnight (film)

Heart of Midnight is a 1988 American thriller film written and directed by Matthew Chapman and starring Jennifer Jason Leigh. The story follows a young woman with a troubled past who has a hard time dealing with the reality of her new surroundings. The original soundtrack for the film was composed by Yanni and it marks one of his first major recordings.

Carol becomes a victim of rape at the hands of three burglars who break into the club. Due to her history of psychological problems, the police have a hard time believing that what shes telling them is the truth. She makes a friend in Lieutenant Sharpe Peter Coyote, a detective who claims to have been sent in to investigate the breakin and who seems to believe her story. However, Sharpe is later revealed to be an impostor who was previously imprisoned because of Carols uncle Fletcher.The film received mixed reviews from critics with some praising the filmmaking and acting while others criticized the storytelling. Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago SunTimes awarded the film two and a half stars out of four and proclaimed that Chapman is a better director than he is a writer as well as concluding that I am not sure he knows where hes going with this film, but he gets there in style. Vincent Canby of The New York Times stated that the dialogue is clumsy and the suspense is nil and gave his reason for this by explaining that Carol is a young woman who may or may not be crazy. This gives the director license to be bizarre without having to justify anything. Variety magazine noted in its review that the performances are strong all around, particularly by Leigh and Vaccaro. Hal Hinson of The Washington Post noted that the storytelling is haute macabre and hopelessly silly but, at the same time, admits that Leigh is a marvel. In spite of the generally agreed upon consensus that the story of the film was flawed, it still managed to win the Best Film award at 1989s Festival de Cine de Sitges. ........

Source: Wikipedia