Not to be confused with any of the Thai series
of portmanteau horror movies, 3 A.M. [2012 / trailer],
3 A.M. Part 2 [2014 / trailer],
or 3 A.M. Part 3 [2018 / trailer].
(Spoilers) This 3 A.M. here is less supernatural than
psychological. The debut feature film of director Lee Davis, who also wrote it,
this largely forgotten and seldom seen NY-set drama explores the lives of
diverse people while focusing mostly on a trio of cab drivers working for Love
Cabs: former baseball flash-in-the-pan Hershey (Danny Glover of Silverado [1985
/ trailer],
Predator 2 [1990 / trailer],
The Royal Tannenbaums [2001 / trailer],
Saw [2004 / trailer]
and more); Bosnian refugee Rasha Andrić (Sergej Trifunović of A Serbian Film
[2010 / trailer]
& The Last Serb in Croatia [2019 / trailer]),
who has one car accident after another and is in love with a disinterested
Bosnian hooker (Marika Dominczyk); and Salgado (Michelle Rodriguez of Resident
Evil [2002 / trailer],
BloodRayne [2005/ trailer],
Machete [2010/ trailer]
& Machete Kills [2013 / trailer],
She Dies Tomorrow [2020 / trailer]
and more) an emotionally unstable young cabbie battling demons real and
imagined.
Rounding out the three main characters are George (national treasure
Pam Grier), Hershey's diner-waitress girlfriend, who worries that he might be
the next cabbie to get killed and to whom he is unable to fully commit; Box
(Sarita Choudhury of Innocence [2013 / trailer]
and Fresh Kill [1994 / trailer]),
the overworked owner of Love Cabs facing financial ruin; and diverse tertiary (or
further removed) characters and cab passengers — including, briefly, the inordinately
likeable new-father cab driver Singh (Aasif Mandvi of Movie 43 [2013 / trailer]),
who exists and dies primarily to make the concept of a cab-driver killer a
realistic, palpable threat to the viewer.
Trailer to
3 a.m.:
3 A.M. is set in that special New York City
of films in which diverse people, despite the fact they are agitating within a
city of roughly 8.5 million, constantly cross paths, and where time flows
immaterially, taking a rhythm that is just perfect to make a multitude of
events occur within an impossible timeframe. But accepting the fact that time
is of no importance, the narrative of the film does well in keeping the viewer
interested and intrigued, even managing to make us care and feel for the at
times sketchily drawn characters as their narratives appear to spiral towards
tragedy.
Unluckily, but for the open-ended but
definitely not promising fate of Michelle Rodriguez's well-acted Salgado,
director/scriptwriter Lee Davis displays an inability to let his characters
suffer the dismaying fate that their personal storylines demand. In the case of
Bosnian Rasha Andrić, Davis even allows a grown-inducing "miracle
recovery" that renders that characters main moral quandary (and thus his entire storyline) a joke, regardless
of the fact that the film ends with him on an airplane back to war-torn Bosnia,
a return trip of open and unknown consequences to a family that could well all
be dead.
And therein lies some of the problems of 3
a.m. While involving and well-shot and well-acted, the movie often feels less
like a "real" feature film meant for the theatres than a well-made TV
movie. Too often, that which happens — whether it be how quickly an unread
contract is signed or a discovery of a suitcase of money or a silent guest
continually observing in a diner — culminates in an unrealistic or overly
magical reveal that slips towards sappy. As a result, 3 A.M. loses much of its
bite and edge, making the overall effect of the movie far less exceptional or
noteworthy or truly moving than, well, toothless. In the end, it feels like a
movie that should be excellent but barely manages to achieve being good (and
does that only if you are of the forgiving kind).
Flawed or not, 3 A.M. arguably does not
deserve to be obscure as it is, if only for the fact that Michelle Rodriguez
delivers an excellent performance, Glover & Grier make such a fetching
couple, and Sarita Choudhury manages to give her one-note character surprising
depth considering how little screen time she has.
But obscure the film is, if
probably less due to its overall underdevelopment than the fact that it was
marketed so poorly. Sold as an action flick, it is anything but. Sure it has
its scenes of gunshots and death, but above all it is a character-driven drama
with a structure somewhat similar to a Robert Altman ensemble film — Nashville
(1975 / trailer),
Short Cuts (1993 / trailer),
The Player (1992 / trailer),
Kansas City (1996 / trailer),
Ready to Wear (1994 / trailer),
etc. — just with less white people and a lot fewer characters.
Lee Davis is obviously
far less interested in any of the actual gunshots shot or fights fought than
the ramifications such events have, emotionally and psychologically, on the
characters involved, or the resulting domino effect. Unluckily, he does his
exploration from the viewpoint of an armchair, which makes 3 A.M. a rather
shallow experience on the whole, despite the fascination that it casts while
one watches it. Worth a watch, in any event.
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