It’s all about the family, isn’t it? At least, that’s what a lot of TV shows and movies show us: Heroes — and heroines — fighting for their family.
But sometimes, you learn it’s time to fight for yourself. And Netflix’s new movie, “Night Always Comes,” starring Oscar nominees Vanessa Kirby (“Pieces of a Woman”) and Jennifer Jason Leigh (“The Hateful Eight”), asks exactly that question.
In it, Kirby’s desperate character Lynette has to scrounge up a down payment on a house overnight or risk her whole family being unhoused. But there are secrets that only emerge in the last moments that upend everything.
So what happens in “Night Always Comes,” and what about that quiet shocker of an ending?
What Is ‘Night Aways Comes’ About?
Lynette is a grown woman living with mom Doreen (Leigh) and older, mentally disabled brother Kenny (Zack Gottsagen).
In order to save the house they’ve lived in for decades, they have to come up with a $25,000 down payment — or end up on the streets. But Doreen uses that money to buy a new car, which risks not only the loss of the house but also Kenny taken away to live in special care. Lynette now has to find that enormous sum by the next morning.
Her assets? Her own beat-up old car, a sketchy history with a lot of less-than-honorable folks, and a long night ahead.
What Does Lynette Do to Get the Money?
Lynette pulls on as many strings as she can to avoid being unhoused, but each goes wrong in spectacularly different ways. Along the way we learn about Lynette’s difficult history, from living with a man who pimped her out when she was 16, to seeing how she loses it when things become difficult.
During the night, she runs someone down, steals a car and a safe, and faces down every possible low-life you can imagine. There’s no sympathy in the city for her, it seems. Kenny tags along with her for part of the adventure, pointing out regularly that he’s the man of the house, her big brother, and he will always take care of her. Their tight, warm relationship is the one bright spot in Lynette’s extremely challenging life.
Is Lynette Successful in Getting the Down Payment?
After all of that, she does succeed — but then the story takes a turn. She returns home with Kenny at dawn, bleeding and beaten up, but successful. But as Doreen picks shards of glass out of her back, the truth comes out: Doreen hates the house. Doesn’t want to live there. Never planned to sign the loan to make it their own.
It gets worse: Doreen tells Lynette, “You’re like that thing at the bottom of a toilet bowl. You just suck everything down.”
That’s a moment of clarity for Lynette, who goes upstairs to sleep and gets a voice mail from the landlord who was going to sell them the house — he’s changed his mind. Suddenly, the $25,000 she’s now begged, borrowed and stolen takes on a new meaning: It’s freedom.
But only for her. Kenny will have to stay with their mother, who refuses to let him go.
How Does ‘Night Always Comes’ End?
Lynette tells Kenny she has to go away, but will come back to visit. After packing, she slips into her car (we’d kind of hoped she’d take her mom’s brand-new vehicle, but that might get her into serious trouble).
She leaves some money for Kenny and a note for her mother which reads in part, “You asked me what I did last night. I fought. I fought for this family. The only way I know how. But I guess you said what I needed to hear, so thank you. And now I need to fight for me.”
With that, Lynette drives off into the morning, into an uncertain — but somehow more hopeful — future.
