‘Midnight Special” is one of those rare, stimulating creations that grabs you and penetrates your bloodstream from start to finish. This tale about a kid with special powers skillfully melds mood and story, giving the experience the feel of a thrilling getaway chase. Director Jeff Nichols dares you to get in, shut up and come along for the late night drive down some desolate Southern roads.
As with his riveting 2011 breakout “Take Shelter,” Nichols doesn’t reveal details carelessly. It forces you to pay attention and give yourself to his vision.
Take the first scene. We hear about a child’s abduction on a broadcast. Then we discover that we’re with two men (Michael Shannon as Roy and Joel Edgerton as Lucas) in a motel room. They’re paranoid about something. Then we see a white bedsheet draped over the outline of what appears to be a child, and you realize you’re with the abductors. It’s an unsettling milieu.
But then Roy removes the bedsheet to reveal a child (Jaeden Lieberher) who is neither scared nor upset. He’s calm. He’s wearing noise-cancelling headphones and pool goggles– there’s ordinariness about it. You realize that Roy isn’t evil at all — there’s an undeniable tenderness in his empathetic, haunted eyes, and it just makes you want to know more.
The boy’s name is Alton and he is, to put it too simply, exceptional. He has powers that no one understands, but that inspire obsession, devotion and fear from those around him. Roy is his father.
He’s taken his son away from a religious cult led by Sam Shepard’s Calvin Meyer, whose service that night is interrupted by federal investigators who have also become interested in the kid. A skeptical, curious NSA agent (Adam Driver) shows up, too.
The cult has been using Alton as their prophet. He goes into a trance and speaks in tongues and they take it for scripture. What is most compelling to the government, the leaders, and even his father, though, is a date and location that keeps coming up: Friday, March 6. No one knows what will happen then, not even Alton.
To explain too much about Alton’s powers would be to destroy the shock of the revelations and the ingenuity with which they’re executed. But “Midnight Special” peels the layers of the story away elegantly and confidently.
The climax doesn’t match the wonder and tension of the journey and the grace of the aftermath. But there is so much more here than that moment. There’s the desperate pursuit of spiritual fulfillment. The blind trust of the awe inspiring but incomprehensible. The simplicity of a parent’s unquestioning trust of their child — and the ever-present knowledge that there will come a day when that child does not need you anymore.
What’s missing is someone who says “wait, what?” when everyone else says “yes.” But all the actors are all so strong that they carry that burden well, especially the criminally underrated Kirsten Dunst, who comes in midway in a part best left to discovery.
