Not all movies can be thought-provoking indies or eye-opening blockbusters. Sometimes a movie can come along that just captures you with an unending eagerness to please. With so many big budget movies that just feel like the entire cast and crew are merely cashing a check, it's great to see a movie where people are having a good time and want to make you laugh. The Night Before may be an extremely silly movie, but it is made with an abundance of infectious energy that makes it absolutely winning.

Winston Connelly (Keanu Reeves) is the resident school geek who gets a date to the prom with popular beauty queen Tara Mitchell (Lori Loughlin) because she lost a bet with her best friend. Winston is determined to show her a good time, but through a series is unfortunate incidents, he loses his car, his wallet, gets into a feud with the feared local crime boss Tito, and inadvertently sells Tara to a pimp. He has a limited amount of time to put the pieces together, before Tara's father (who just happens to be the police chief) or Tino try to kill him, and before she is resold to a pimp named Fat Jack.

The film has a surprisingly potent narrative structure. It begins with Winston waking up in the middle of an alley in the dark of night. All he has is a tattered tux and his car keys, but no car or date in sight. As Winston begins to piece together the events of the previous night, the audience is treated to flashbacks detailing the escalating series of mishaps that took place. This is an effective way of piling things on to the befuddled main character. As Winston keeps remembering each horrifying detail, his exasperation increases to hilarious degrees. This would not have been possible with a more conventional narrative.

Director Thom Eberhardt moves the film along at a dizzying speed. Sharp musical cues signal our way in and out of the flashbacks. There are several chase scenes filmed with surprising clarity and excitement for a movie of this type. The standout sequence takes place at a seedy nightclub. Winston gets boozed up a bit, and his enthusiasm begins to win Tara over. To the backdrop of George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars, Keanu Reeves and Lori Loughlin perform a rousing dance number.

The fast pace employed by Eberhardt is key, because if it slows down at any moment, the thin plot upon which the comedy is based would fall apart. There are many moments where characters are forced to make illogical decisions in order to advance the plot. On the way to the prom, Winston gets lost taking a shortcut and ends up crossing the tracks to the seedy side of town. Not once is it explained to us why he doesn't immediately turn around. In another scene, Tara's father fails to realize something that should be clearly obvious, especially for the police chief. No wonder Tito is running around with so much influence.

Thankfully, the casting is spot on. Just like in his best film roles (Bill and Ted, The Matrix), Keanu Reeves plays a character extremely confused about the events unfolding before him. His typically low key delivery actually helps the film from being too over the top. He perfectly sells hilarious lines like "I was supposed to have her home by midnight, and instead, I sold her to a pimp!", whereas other actors would have ridiculously overplayed the scene and called attention to themselves instead of the joke. Lori Loughlin is perfect as the stuck up daddy's girl, and portrays Tara with a quick wit. Her spunky line delivery makes the character far more tolerable than she would have been otherwise.

The Night Before certainly isn't a great movie. It has an exceedingly silly premise and a multitude of plot holes. Winston and Tara are more caricatures than fully realized characters. Despite these flaws, Eberhardt provides plenty of amusing moments and moves the film at a very brisk pace. The Night Before was clearly made by people who enjoy making movies, and it's surprising how rare that commodity is today.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD