MIDNIGHT TAXI – Review

First of all, if you’re a vintage film buff who has already seen 1937’s MIDNIGHT TAXI, this new movie one bears no similarity beyond the shared name. This is a surreal indie drama featuring Eddie (Ladi Emeruwa), a London cabbie who likes the night shift with its relatively light traffic. After dozing off in his cab, he awakens to find a murdered woman lying on the street in front of him. After that, he’s so haunted by the memory and the cops’ seeming indifference to finding her killer that he begins his own obsessive investigation.

The rest is a suspenseful ordeal with a few wrinkles and twists. One cop seems hell-bent on blaming Eddie for the crime. We gradually learn more about Eddie’s past and psychological issues that blur the picture for him and the viewer. There are a few moments of peril and violence but it’s mostly conversations with passengers and others that fill the screen. Co-writers/directors Bertie and Samantha Speirs keep the mystery up in the air to the end, while fleshing out a protagonist to root for, even as his good-guy nature becomes questionable.

The surreal part is that there’s hardly any traffic on the roads or the sidewalks in this dense urban setting. Ever. Eddie’s cab is usually the only vehicle in motion. Most of the people on foot are a handful of hookers plying their trade despite the dearth of passersby to solicit. Presumably, budget was a consideration in how to fill the frames but the result is a product that looks like they crept onto film set exteriors after shooting of the studio’s movies wrapped for the day. That does have the benefit of adding an eerie mystique to the proceedings that might have been an artistic choice, rather than financial. But the ending comes so abruptly that it reinforces the thought that they may have been running out of time or money. Even so, it’s an interesting story in a tight little package.

MIDNIGHT TAXI is available in digital formats and VOD starting Tuesday, July 23.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars