Filmed Locally - Cold Comes the Night

GREENE COUNTY — “Cold Comes the Night” is a 2014 crime-thriller starring Bryan Cranston and Alice Eve. The bleak, neo-noir tale was filmed in Cairo, Durham, and Windham, and viewers familiar with the area will be able to tell. The film was shot over twenty-two days in October and November 2012, and the gray end of an upstate New York fall sets the tone for the film throughout. It was actor Bryan Cranston’s first film role following the conclusion of the revered television series, “Breaking Bad,” in which he played the notorious teacher-turned-meth-kingpin, Walter White. Here, Cranston plays the nearly blind, aging criminal, Topo, who, on his way to the Canadian border and driven by his accomplice/nephew, Quincy, stops in a motel owned by Chloe, played by Alice Eve (“Star Trek Into Darkness”). Chloe, a struggling single mother, soon finds herself spiraling further into Topo’s underworld after a tragic event involving Quincy and a prostitute. Topo takes Chloe and her daughter, Sophia, hostage to be his eyes as he attempts to retrieve a duffel bag full of money from a corrupt police officer, played by Logan Marshall-Green. Ah, the bag of cash. A reliable prop and motivating device at the epicenter in many a film noir/crime drama. Despite the star power of Cranston and Eve, the film received tepid reviews upon its release, with Eve often receiving the highest praise out of any of the film’s elements (Cranston speaks in a somewhat cartoonish Russian accent throughout, and with almost no background given to the character, one wonders why it was even necessary). Many critics pointed to the effectiveness of the setting, with critic Christie Lemire complimenting the “vividly bleak atmosphere” and Justin Chang noting “the underpopulated New York locations beautifully capture a sense of desolation.” Locations in Cairo, East Durham, and Windham offered the right location for filmmaker Tze Chun’s “Cold Come The Night.”