Mark Reviews Movies: STARS AT NOON

Stars at Noon, A24

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 13, 2022

Here's a political thriller that doesn't really care about politics or thrills. Co-writer/director Claire Denis's Stars at Noon is more interested in the ways two people become caught up in various intrigues and conspiracies, which are so engrained in the workings of government, diplomacy, and behind-the-scenes schemes that they might as well be invisible.

On a dramatic level, that means those two characters have to do a lot of heavy lifting for this story to work. They're intriguing on their own, to be sure, but Denis, Andrew Litvack, and Léa Mysius' screenplay forces them into an unconvincing romance that takes over whatever these characters could have been and the deeper, more cynical layers of the plot in which they become involved.

Take the focal character, a freelance journalist named Trish (Margaret Qualley). She's technically a journalist, in that a publication paid her to write a piece. It was meant to be for a travel magazine, but somehow, she ended up coming to Nicaragua during the COVID-19 pandemic. Apparently, the resulting article had nothing to do with travel and everything to do with various crimes, such as torture and extrajudicial executions, being perpetrated by the government.

That means the magazine's editor (played in a brief but amusing cameo by John C. Reilly) has no interest in advancing her any more cash for a trip to Costa Rica and another piece (To be fair to Trish, what did this guy expect when she pitched the idea, even if it was a lie, in the first place?). As for her local contacts, a higher-up with the police force, played by Nick Romano, is holding on to her passport for "safe keeping" and pays her cash for sexual favors. A government vice-minister (played by Stephan Proaño) arranged accommodations at a ramshackle hotel in order to keep less-friendly officials from finding her too easily.

In other words, Trish is stuck in Nicaragua for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, she wanders the streets and a fancier hotel by night, looking for new contacts or, at least, some extra money by soliciting well-to-do foreigners staying at the hotel for sex.

Qualley is quite good in this role, mixing the confidence of someone who knows exactly what she wants and why she wants it with a tinge of the desperation of a person who fears she'll never get it. The performance, as well as the way Denis simply observes how equally mundane and tenuous Trish's limbo-like existence is under these circumstances, creates some intriguing potential and just a bit of tension about how the character could possibly get herself out of this mess.

Enter Daniel (Joe Alwyn), who seems pretty straightforward but turns out to be quite the mystery. He is staying at the lavish hotel, says he's a representative of a UK oil company, and agrees to pay Trish for a night together in his room. Trying to meet with him again later, Trish spots him talking to a man, played by Danny Ramirez, in the hotel restaurant. She instantly recognizes the stranger as a Costa Rican cop, and if that country's government has taken interest in Daniel's dealings in Nicaragua, it means he might not be what he says he is—and is probably in a lot of trouble.

Denis and her fellow screenwriters, adapting Denis Johnson's novel, leave much of the reasons for the danger intentionally but frustratingly vague. The underlying politics here—having to do with a forthcoming election and the United States having some stake in the outcome—aren't the central point, but the uncertainty surrounding why people are looking for Daniel undermines the stakes of a decent chunk of the plot, especially in the third act.

The rest of the narrative possesses a two-fold purpose. The first, of course, is watching as Trish, who loses some of her privileges with her contacts once they spot her spending time with the Brit, and Daniel, who is checked out of his hotel room and has his personal belongings taken by some mysterious person claiming to be with the oil company, evade and hide from seen and unseen forces who are searching for them.

The low-key approach to this cat-and-mouse game is admirable. Scenes of the two waiting, observing, and hoping that no one will notice them feel far more realistic than a series of shootouts and car chases, and Denis seems to mildly poke at such expectations in a scene with Trish and Daniel hiring a cab driver to lose a car that might be chasing them, only for them to be too drunk to notice they haven't. Benny Safdie later plays a "consultant" who tries to get information out of Trish—and whose obsession with politeness belies someone more sinister.

Mostly, though, the focus turns to the relationship between these two characters, and the dynamic never quite works. For one thing, Trish seems too worldly and aware the threat here to suddenly become so naïve as to suddenly fall for a man of such questionable intentions. As for Daniel, he's a mystery and remains as one for the entirety of Stars at Noon. The result is a thriller that, despite its subversive approach, never gets moving and a love story that's tough to buy.

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