The domestic trailer for the French action-thriller Sleepless Night has gone online.  The plot centers on a cop (Tomer Sisley) who steals drugs from a mobster (Serge Riaboukine), and the mobster retaliates by kidnapping the cop’s son.  When the cop goes back to exchange the stolen drugs for his son, the drugs go missing, and the cop goes on a frantic chase inside the mobster’s night club to rescue his son by any means possible.  It was one of the best films I saw at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, and I’m glad it’s about to hit stateside.  My review is quoted in the trailer, but I feel it’s important to note that the trailer inserts an exclamation point I didn’t use.  Exclamation points change the tone of a sentence, and I don’t think I’ve ever used one to make a serious point in a review.

My minor personal annoyance aside, Sleepless Night is still a great flick and you should check it out.  The movie hits VOD on April 17th, but you should see it with the energy of a packed theater when it opens on May 11th.  Hit the jump to watch the trailer.

Frederic Jardin’s Sleepless Night is a taut, claustrophobic, and breathless chase and one of the most exciting films I’ve seen at TIFF.  Once night falls in the film, Jardin never breaks the tension as we follow a desperate father wind his way through a nightclub with no way out, no elaborate plan, and no easy solution to his dilemma.  Even more remarkable is how the film introduces so many players but keeps jumping around as different factions close in on our protagonist and his only options are to run, fight, hide, or all of the above.  It’s usually “all of the above.”