Following his existential masterpiece Leaving Las Vegas about the joys of a doomed relationship British director Mike Figgis then went on to tackle the problematic impact of a one night stand.
Wesley Snipes plays Max, a successful director of commercials who, while on a visit to New York to visit his friend Charlie, Robert Downey Jr. who`s HIV-positive, has a series of unfortunate experiences all of which propel him to an accidental connection with Karen - Natassia Kinski.Back in L.A. with wife Mimi -- Ming-Na Wen -- things somehow just don`t seem the same. Max`s dissatisfaction shows through and the plot thickens a year later in New York when Max and Mimi visit Charlie in hospital ... it turns out that Karen is married to Charlie`s brother Vernon (Kyle MacLachlan).
One Night Stand was based on an original screenplay by Joe Eszterhas who`s since taken his name off the film. One Night Stand`s a good film without being a great one ... it has an amazingly effective sex scene, it has great music by Figgis, it has some fine performances particularly from Ming-Na Wen and Robert Downey Jr. -- but I never felt that I got to know the two central characters very well at all ... Karin is very shadowy, so that when we find out she`s a rocket scientist it`s almost laughable. And there`s a removed quality to Max. There are a lot of laughs in the film, although rather uncomfortable ones at times. It`s romantic, it rings very true and Mike Figgis is a very accomplished director. The film does disappoint ultimately but it`s enormously enjoyable for most of its duration.
