You
should not judge Vivienne Carala too harshly for ignoring her body’s warning
signs. When you are a jazz vocalist, you have to strike while the iron is hot
and you can never stop hustling. However, missing out on her daughter’s
childhood is another matter entirely, but that is the price she paid for kind
of-sort of making it. A tumor diagnosis will rudely prompt her to reconsider
all the choices she made throughout the fateful day before she is admitted for
an invasive battery of tests and treatment in Fabien Constant’s Blue Night, which screens during the
2018 Tribeca Film Festival.
Carala
has been gigging at a high level for over two decades. She is preparing for the
twenty-fifth anniversary of her first Birdland gig (presumably, she has one of
those weekend spots), which is an accomplishment, but instead of fulfilling her
ambition of playing the main auditorium of Carnegie Hall, she might have to
settle for Zankel Hall (which is also really nice).
Those
were all yesterday’s concerns. This morning’s diagnosis has put everything in
doubt. Yet, she still goes through the motions at a rehearsal and in press
interviews. She has many people in her life she should tell, but she has
trouble communicating with them (rather ironically, considering she is a
vocalist in the Susannah McCorkle mold, who specializes in dramatically
interpreting lyrics, rather than dazzling audiences with her chops).
Frankly,
Blue Night is a lot better than you
might expect, because it really looks like New York and gets a lot of the jazz
details right. There is a scene shot on location in Birdland and another looks
a lot like the Cornelia Street Café bar. The way Carala interacts with her
musicians also feels very real (except for the fact that she is sleeping with
her drummer, which happens less frequently than you might suppose). It is
therefore frustrating that Constant did not have more confidence in jazz to use
it for the underlying soundtrack. Instead, we hear a great deal of discordant strings.
Regardless,
you have to give Sarah Jessica Parker a great deal of credit. First of all, she
is willing to look her (and Carala’s age), often under harsh light and
unflattering circumstances. Make no mistake, there is nothing vain about this
film. She also handles Carala’s vocals with surprising taste and sensitivity. In
fact, she really nicely turns a Rufus Wainwright original and a cover of
Ritchie Cordell’s “I Think We’re Alone Now” that plays over the closing
credits.
When
it comes to the drama, Parker develops some remarkably, ambiguously poignant
chemistry with Common, playing her manager Ben. She also has some honest and
effective scenes with Gus Birney and Simon Baker, as her daughter and
ex-husband. However, the melodrama with her high-maintenance mother Jeanne (portrayed
by the scenery-gorging Jacqueline Bisset) always feel forced and phony.