My Review of A Night Like This (2025)

 

Written by Diego Scerrati

Directed by Liam Calvert

Lukas (to Oliver): "We all look for signs and we all want to believe the bad things happen for a reason."

I held watching this movie off for this month because I read that it had a Christmas setting. It does by the way but it's mostly in the background as the focus was on two very different men forming a connection on a winter's night.

The men in question couldn't be any more different to one another. There was struggling German gay actor Lukas (Jack Brett Anderson). He was on the verge of ending everything until he happened to bump into the rather talkative and privileged Oliver (Alexander Lincoln). Like I said, two very different men.

Oliver initially stole Lukas's pint and then repaid him with a drink while talking about his failing club, Delirio. Oliver's father had also died and he hated his stepmother. Lukas talked about an audition he had as well as needing to head into his coffee house job in the morning. Both men were not entirely honest with one another.

They weren't totally dishonest but there were bits to their respective stories that unfolded the more time they spent with each other. This time included a sing song at a failing Country Music club ran by John (David Bradley) and his daughter Emma (Beth Rylance). There's a plot involving Oliver's aspirations for music that are nicely explored throughout the movie.

On top of that, there's also the inclusion of teenage tearaway Daniel (Jimmy Ericson). He's an amusing foil for both Oliver and Daniel. He stole from the former and made homophobic remarks to the latter but got his chance to redeem before the movie concluded. Also for a rather immature character, he did manage to give Oliver some good advice.

Now, this film tried to conduct an experiment where Oliver and Lukas would spend until 8am to see if there was a real connection between. There were definitely moments where they clashed over revelations about each other and moments where they really did have a connection. The movie itself ended on a rather positive note.

- The original title for this movie was On A Winter's Night. I liked that title more tbh.

- The Tremors movies are referenced a lot with Lukas only liking the first two and thanks to this movie, I know what the word "apofenia" means. 

- Standout music: Alexander Lincoln to his credit does have a nice singing voice. Fairytales And Lullabies, anyone?

- Chronology: Christmas time in London. Lukas has lived in the UK for a couple of years.

A Night Like This won't sate those who were hoping for something a bit more steamy than kissing but it's a nice movie. I think both Jack Brett Anderson and Alexander Lincoln do a very nice job in making their characters pull towards one another very believable.

Rating: 7 out of 10