Throughout his career, as a screenwriter on TAXI DRIVER and as a director with AMERICAN GIGALO, Paul Schrader has dealt with characters on the fringe of society that make their living in the night. He again tackles such a character in LIGHT SLEEPER — this time an upscale drug dealer named John LeTour (Willem Dafoe, THE ENGLISH PATIENT).
LeTour works for a woman named Ann (Susan Sarandon, DEAD MAN WALKING), who wants to get out of the drug business and maybe open a cosmetics company. But if she actually goes through with it what will LeTour do? He was a drug addict who started dealing to pay for his addiction. He eventually kicked the habit, but the money was too good to walk away from. And now that he’s forty he has nothing to show for it.
He’s desperate, but good. He sincerely wants to clean up his life and struggles morally with what he does for a living. By coincidence, he meets up with Marianne Jost (Dana Delany, TOMBSTONE), who he once dated when they were addicts and who he still loves. She has been clean for years and is afraid that LeTour will bring her back into the life. LeTour keeps pursuing her and she starts to break down, but there is too much baggage between them for things to turn out perfect.
The sad film has a haunting tone, which is supported strongly by Dafoe’s somber performance. Schrader films the picture in cool colors with certain characters bringing in bright flashes with costume and performance. The film captures the feeling of a man who has survived a profession, which usually kills its workers long before their fortieth birthday. It has brought him some wealth, but no happiness. The look of his apartment mirrors the emptiness of his soul. I would have liked to see a more original conclusion, but in this world the ending still fits. In no way does the film make drugs glamorous. It’s a lonely life with only death as your constant companion.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
