|
|
One Night Stand
One Night(1997) ...aka One Night Stand(1996)... Nurse Chris
Plot synopsis: Julian plays the nurse to the best friend (Robert Downey, Jr.) of the lead character, played by Wesley Snipes. He's a married man having an affair with a married woman. Downey's character is a gay man dying of AIDS in the hospice where Julian's character works.
Review
& Commentary: You'd think the story of a man who has a one
night stand with a woman who's not his wife would have been so
done-to-death that it couldn't be interesting. And if you were to
judge this film by its (lack of) critical acclaim and financial
success, you might be positive about that. You'd be wrong.
I
came out of this film with two strong impressions: 1) that Wesley
Snipes is a much better actor than I'd thought him to be, and 2) that
Mike Figgis is probably one of the few directors in Hollywood who
knows both how to best use Julian as an actor, and how to keep his
looks from drawing so much attention that he can't play a supporting
role effectively. I've never been a Wesley Snipes fan, but after
watching him play this man who not only has a one night stand, but is
also dealing with the death of his best friend from AIDS, I was
rather impressed. He's completely believable in the role, and is
another reason Figgis didn't have to worry about Julian upstaging his
lead actors (Robert Downey, Jr. does an equally brilliant job as the
dying man, but I expected it of him....).
Julian
plays Chris, the nurse tending to Downey's character in the hospice. 
At
first, he seems only a practical secondary character, coming into
Charlie's room to give him a bath. But we soon see him as something
more than a set of hands tending to his duties: he's helping the
doctor examine the sick man, holding him against his own chest to let
her listen to his lungs, looking rather desperately concerned when
she doesn't appear to like what she's hearing. You get the impression
that not only is he a fine nurse, but he's a caring one, dedicated to
his patient and caring deeply about him and his condition. He's
sympathetic to the Snipes character, experiencing the same sense of
loss when they've both acknowledged that Charlie is dying. He's both
professional and expressive when Snipes gives him a gift in
appreciation for his caring. And he manages a fine balance between
grief and joy when he attends Charlie's New Orleans-style wake.
Unfortunately, he's not in the film enough to make it worthwhile to
see it just for Julian, but I found the film as a whole thoughtful
and sensitive enough to make it well worth watching, especially with
Julian in it.
Availability:
after a lengthy showing on pay-per-view television, One Night Stand
was released on home video in 1998. It should be available for rental
or purchase in most video stores.
Buy
It on VHS. Buy
It on VHS with Spanish subtitles. 
Buy
It on DVD.
Media clips from the film: (Julian does not appear in these)
The trailer from One Night Stand with Wesley Snipes and the most-often worked-with Nastassja Kinski (Julian played the nurse of the Snipes character's best friend, a gay man dying of AIDS - Robert Downey, Jr.). MOV format, 9.7MB (it's the full trailer!)
A series of brief clips from One Night Stand: One (MOV or AVI, 650K), Two (MOV or AVI, 1.6MB), Three (MOV or AVI, 840K) and Four (MOV or AVI, 1.1MB).