| That Night | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Craig Bolotin |
| Produced by | Arnon Milchan Stephen Reuther |
| Written by | Novel: Alice McDermott Screenplay Craig Bolotin |
| Starring | C. Thomas Howell Juliette Lewis Eliza Dushku Helen Shaver |
| Music by | David Newman |
| Cinematography | Bruce Surtees |
| Editing by | Priscilla Nedd-Friendly |
| Studio | Le Studio Canal+ Regency Enterprises Alcor Films |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | August 27, 1993 |
| Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7,000,000 |
| Box office | $20,473 |
That Night is a 1992 romantic drama film written and directed by Craig Bolotin, and starring C. Thomas Howell and Juliette Lewis. It is based on the novel of the same name by Alice McDermott.[1]
This film is notable for the fact that both Eliza Dushku (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame) and Katherine Heigl (of Grey's Anatomy fame) made their first film appearances in it, sharing a few scenes. Dushku was 11 years old at that time, and Heigl was 13.
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In 1961 Long Island, Alice Bloom (Eliza Dushku) is a ten-year-old girl that is trying to understand how love works. She is infatuated with the girl across the street, 17-year old Sheryl O' Connor (Juliette Lewis). She often looks at her from across the street, as their bedroom windows are level with each other. Alice starts to copy every detail about Sheryl, including her perfume and the record she listens to. As Alice and her mother pick up her father from work, she notices Sheryl speeding up to the train station to pick up her own father. She then tells her mother about how amazing Sheryl is: about how she could travel long distances in her car in no time at all, how she was slapped in the face by one of her Catholic School teachers and never cried, and how she ran the mile in gym and never broke a sweat. Alice's mother does not believe what she is saying.
One day she decides to go bowling with some of her friends and is ridiculed by them when she rolls a ball into the lane next to hers, and her friends award her with a score of "minus zero" and calling her a dufus. Reeling from comments made to her, she immediately becomes excited when Sheryl walks into the bowling alley along with a group of guys trying to win her affection. Sheryl, seemingly innocent and moral, rejects their advances. She rings the bell at the front desk, and from under the counter a boy named Rick (C. Thomas Howell) appears. They are instantly attracted to each other. As Alice continues to bowl with her friends, she constantly watches Sheryl's every move. Her friends then mention that they think Sheryl's breasts are fake, because they do not move. Alice insists they are real, so they make her walk over to Sheryl to ask her. But before she can get there, Rick pages her to come back to the desk, and a police officer tells her that her father just died.
During the funeral, Sheryl is obviously upset. As she is sitting in the bathroom, she notices her bowling shoes on the floor and goes to the bowling alley to return them. There she finds Rick repairing one of the pin returns. He tells her they are closed, and she starts crying over her father. After some conversation, Rick walks Sheryl home, and leads to their first kiss. This is observed by Alice, who earlier had spotted Sheryl running to go to the bowling alley. The next day Rick comes back with his gang, and they take Sheryl to the beach, where they have oysters and tequila and Sheryl pours her heart out over her father's death. They spend the whole day and night together.
The film itself received mildly positive reviews, but the performances by Dushku and Lewis were praised. David Stratton, in Daily Variety wrote "This isn't exactly riveting material, and the film's modest production values seem more suited to the small screen. Nevertheless, [D]ushku makes the hero-worshiping moppet an engaging character, and Howell is just right as every suburban mom's idea of a daughter's undesirable boyfriend. Lewis, her hair dyed blond, is more than adequate as the vivacious Sheryl."[2] Janet Maslin in the New York Times expressed detailed disappointment in the number and depth of changes made in the film, and found Lewis' "slinky, demonstrative performance is way out of proportion to the tepid film built around it."[3] Entertainment Weekly graded the film "B-", remarking that director Bolotin "leans too heavily on period detail, but That Night clicks whenever it taps into the crazy, stupid madness of teen lust."[4] In Rolling Stone magazine, Peter Travers wrote that while book author McDermott made clear how the intensity of the teen romance changes Alice's life, first-time director Bolotin offers a "pale facsimile that traffics in too many coming-of-age clichés", but concluded, "what makes That Night worth seeing is a knockout performance from Lewis, who evokes the joy and confusion of sexuality. You can't take your eyes off her."[5]