On a Magical Night review – raunchy, shallow riff on A Christmas Carol

After the epic sweep and sombre subject matter of last year’s Sorry Angel, it’s hardly surprising that Christophe Honoré would want to follow it up with something lighter and sprightlier. This is exactly what he’s done with On A Magical Night, a raunchy riff on A Christmas Carol that starts out fun and intriguing, but eventually collapses under the weight of its own self-satisfied shallowness.

We first meet our protagonist Maria (Chiara Mastroianni) having an affair with a much younger student of hers, who himself is in a relationship. As far as character introductions go, it’s an effectively off-putting one, and Maria never gets much more likeable, even as we get to know her. Her husband Richard (Benjamin Biolay) finds out about her infidelity, but when confronted about it, Maria doesn’t think it’s a big deal, assuming – though incorrectly – that Richard has had flings on the side too.

Richard’s obvious devastation throws Maria for a loop, so she heads over the road to stay the night at a hotel, where she is visited by ghosts of lovers past, present, and future. These early encounters, all stylish and mysterious, are where On A Magical Night is at its best. The intrigue puts us in Maria’s shoes as she encounters Richard as a young man (Vincent Lacoste), his first love, her mother and grandmother, and the litany of young men she cheated on Richard with.

Her hotel room transforms for each encounter, and the set design is terrific, perfectly suited to the dream logic upon which the film operates. Yet as entertaining as this all is, it’s rarely in service of any real emotion or story, as characters get bogged down in long conversations about how they once felt rather than offering any sort of progress or development.

Honoré remains playful throughout – an apartment block stairway suddenly leads directly to a beach, the café below the memory-filled hotel is called “Rosebud” – but it gets less winning as the novelty wears off. The lack of emotional weight is very damaging for a “long dark night of the soul” movie, and the attempts at a sincerely moving conclusion just end feeling like an unnecessarily slow waste of time.

Mastroianni and Biolay are given pretty flat characters to play, so it’s down to Lacoste to really bring life into the performances, and he is at least compelling. Swiftly becoming one of the most watchable French actors around, as the young Richard he’s haughty, hurt, and cheeky by turns here, elevating the scenes he’s in and the performances around him.

For a film pitched mostly as a comedy, there is also a conspicuous lack of jokes. Plenty of scenes bounce along with the pitch and cadence of a set-up, but the punchlines are rare. It makes for a breezy watch, but one that feels particularly empty after it’s over, neither the comedy or drama making enough of an impact. In an understated finale, Honoré promises some sort of redemption for his embattled characters, which then leaves you with one last question: why should I care?

On a Magical Night is now available to rent on Curzon Home Cinema.