3475. Comes A Bright Day (2012)

Starring: Craig Roberts, Imogen Poots, Timothy Spall

Director: Simon Aboud

Running Time: 91 mins

Comes A Bright Day is a British film about a hotel bellboy who accidentally finds himself locked in a jewellery store with the woman he wants to ask on a date, after her place of work is targeted in a heist.

I’m a fan of heist movies, and I also like films with a small cast and a contained setting, so I expected to rather enjoy Comes A Bright Day. Unfortunately, however, this is a really dull movie, with little in the way of great tension, gripping drama, good humour or even any recognisable atmosphere to make for a captivating watch.

Let’s start with the biggest problem, that this movie doesn’t ever know exactly what it is. It’s not a straight heist movie, but rather a self-styled ‘romantic thriller’ that features elements of dark comedy along with very mellow drama.

Those many different genres and styles really don’t mix well together in this case, and as such it’s difficult to know exactly how to enjoy Comes A Bright Day from its opening act. At times, I was trying to find humour in parts of the screenplay that were totally devoid of it, and at others, I was looking to be on the edge of my seat when the film was actually trying to slow things down.

In short, that shows Comes A Bright Day to be a real mess of a film, an issue made even worse by the fact that its story, as seemingly simple as it is on the surface, is really quite boring.

The film may have three strong leads in Craig Roberts, Imogen Poots and Timothy Spall, but despite starring at the centre of the film, you seem to learn very little about them, marking them out as staggeringly underused personalities throughout.

The exact opposite is the case for the burglars who set about robbing the jewellery shop, with two poor performances from Kevin McKidd and Josef Atlin that make the heist/hostage situation extremely unthreatening, ripping away any tension from the story.

That lack of tension is then made even more tedious by a collection of long, drawn-out conversations between the three leads that amount to very little, and a bewildering lack of claustrophobia in the film’s setting, which director Simon Aboud could have employed to make a world of difference to its excitement factor.

Overall, then, I was really underwhelmed by Comes A Bright Day. A painfully boring affair throughout, the film squanders an often captivating premise and a talented cast with a messy mish-mash of genres and a real lack of atmosphere throughout. So, that’s why I’m giving it a 5.5.