A voyeuristic hotel clerk becomes the subject of a murder investigation.

The Night Clerk poster I didn’t know what I was getting into with The Night Clerk. I thought it was going to be more of a thriller or murder mystery, but in the end, it was just a mishmash that didn’t work for me.

The acting is quite good. Tye Sheridan does a good job with the Asperger’s afflicted protagonist, Bart. The lovely Ana de Armas is the femme-fatale love interest, Andrea. John Leguizamo doesn’t have much to work with but does a good job. Helen Hunt does a great job of playing Bart’s caring and devoted mother.

The Night Clerk felt more like a failed film noir movie than anything. Bart was a creepy voyeur. Andrea was taking advantage of him. But the murder mystery portion of the movie didn’t have enough punch for me to get interested in it.

The ending was mostly satisfying to me. The cops are seen closing in on the killer while Bart walks an indoor mall and says hello to people. (His voyeurism was a way to practice normal conversations with people.) I always like to see the bad guy get caught, but Bart walking the mall was too much of a ‘happy’ ending for this movie. I guess that’s why it felt like a failed film noir movie to me.

IMDB has it at 5.1, I’d go with 4.5. I don’t want my time back, but once was enough.

Watch: maybe.