Review by Benjamin Poole
Directed by: Julia Jackman
Starring: Maika Monroe, Emma Corrin, Nicholas Galitzine, Felicity Jones, Amir El-Masry, Charli XCX, Richard E. Grant
Not yet another comic book adaptation... I jest, of course, as writer/director Julia Jackman's 100 Nights of Hero is based upon Isabel Greenberg's boutique graphic novel 'The One Hundred Nights of Hero', a far cry from the superhero slop which floods the contemporary market (I still love superhero comics, but the problem is a lot of them are not much good anymore: notable exceptions include Camp and Frigeri's of-the-moment 'Ultimates', and Nic Klein's vivid Cthuluan art in 'Infernal Hulk' is wow). Greenberg's books are the sort of thing which gives comics a good name though, in that they are idiosyncratic, beautiful to look at and deeply imaginative and witty (my favourite is 'Glass Town', her take on the visionary childhoods of the Brontës, but then I am a Brontë guy: a "bro"-ntë?). Moreover, like the best comics (John Byrne's sensational 'She-Hulk' run, say) Greenberg's work maximises the form, building its magic upon the structures and conventions of sequential art narratives. Informed by an Arabian Nights dynamic, 'The One Hundred Nights of Hero' is predicated upon the intimacy of storytelling, with pacing matched to the turning of pages, authorial addresses between panels, and even the act of closing the book to pick it up again mirrors the episodic dimensions of Hero and Cherry's fraught situation.
Which is to say that a cinematic adaptation of 'The One Hundred Nights of Hero' has its work cut out... Carrying over the essential plot, we meet Cherry (Maika Monroe) a young and beautiful bride who is married to landed gentry and somewhat uncommitted husband Jerome (Amir El-Masry). It is quite likely that Jerome is unconsciously a homosexual and therefore unable to physically ratify the marriage. In a fit of masculine projection, he enters into a bet with his comely pal Manfred (Nicholas Galitzine), wagering that the outlier will/won't be able to seduce Cherry (his motives are obscure: Jerome needs a progenitor, after all). Aside from sidestepping Cherry's agency and consent, the further concern is that, in the graphic novel at least, Cherry was quite happy with the ostensibly chaste set-up, as she is in a clandestine romantic relationship with her maid Hero (Emma Corrin). In both versions the gifted fabulist Hero takes it upon herself to put Manfred off by telling him a gripping tale each night, cooling his ardour and delaying advances. In 100 Nights of Hero however, the relational interplay of the comic is significantly altered. Here Cherry and Hero's relationship is tentative and unconsummated, and, what's more, the lovelorn bride is understandably attracted to Manfred (in the book a hat-wearing weirdo, here a complete snack). What was originally an affecting love story becomes an unkempt love triangle...
It's an odd choice, and one which detracts from the doomed-love propulsion of Hero and Cherry's relationship. I do get that films adjust and modify source material according to medium and form, but a further issue with 100 Nights of Hero is that it's almost as if there is assumption of prior knowledge. To wit, the film features subplots such as the world's bizarre avian-tuned religion and a coda involving a personified moon, both of which in the source material are fully developed but here function as potentially mystifying sidebars to the uninitiated. Furthermore, in the original Hero tells several stories, whereas here there is just one tale, which weaves in and out of the primary narrative, reinforcing the film's feminist ideologies and mirroring the situation of Hero and Cherry.
The visual set of the film is, nonetheless, gorgeous. Jackman orchestrates joyful collaborations from production designer Sofia Saccomani, art director Naomi Bailey and cinematographer Xenia Patricia. With its lush colour palette and arch iconography, the style is more suitably Wes Anderson than Greenberg's stark woodcuts. Susie Coulthard's costumes are worth the ticket price alone, with wildly elaborate stylings completely fitting to the film's baroque diegesis and which contribute further meaning of the strange world of Early Earth. What's more, the visual design of the film adjusts correspondingly when we are in the world of the told story, which Hero calls "The Dancing Stones" (not my favourite from the source, which is "A Very Honest Harp", but I recognise that representing that particular tale would make 100 Nights of Hero a tone improper body horror), where navy blues and earthier tones dominate, as fitting the thematic severity of the fable...
We meet three sisters doted upon by their elder father, who, in keeping with the framing story's patriarchy, means to marry his daughters off. The girls have a secret though, which is that they can all read and write, and both tell and materialise stories, too; acts that are verboten within the nested story and Hero's world. A suitor arrives, and daughter Rosa (Charli XCX-!) begins to fall in love with him. Full disclosure, I am a card carrying "angel" (yeah, yeah, brat summer, powders, #lfg etc - but I still think that album is a post-Sophie masterpiece) and as such am highly invested in Charli's proposed pivot to working within film in the future. With lyrical allusions and a vocal love for French New Wave, her cinephilia has been apparent from the off. Plus, the video for Von Dutch was my favourite audio-visual product of 2024: a pop concentration which communicated the exact rush of the substances which apparently inspired its creation. It's funny, being Charli as always she has a keen understanding of the camera's gaze and all but leans into the lens here as she serves looks, but she is a charismatic presence, and, with its exotic yet specifically British beauty, I don't think I could ever get bored of looking at Charli's face... fingers crossed for The Moment and I Want Your Sex, I guess?
A major flaw of 100 Nights of Hero is that the sisters' tale, with all its devastating implications, is far more compelling than the framing story. Jerome's bet involves a limited time period, and anyone remotely familiar with the mechanisms of feature film narratives/ or who remember the title of the film, will know not to expect stakes until the end of the centennial. Until then, we have smouldering looks, stolen glances, so-so drama, albeit all within a painterly mise-en-scene. Another hiccup is that there is limited chemistry between the three actors, and their reserved personas do not communicate urgent emotion. I like Monroe a lot, but her thing is looking beautiful and unhappy: she is a lacuna which the action shifts around (viz. Longlegs, where her pristine emptiness is covered by spectrum coding). Corrin is similarly inscrutable, their opacity best applied to their undercelebrated and profoundly unsettling Cassandra Nova (from a very different comic book adaptation) or the doe-like remove of Diana Spencer. The actors' mien does suit the sad little faces of their illustrated counterparts, but feature little of the vitality, wit and tragic humanity of Greenberg's line work. 100 Nights of Hero works best as a gorgeous confection, a triumph of creative style and visual bounty. However, it is ultimately lamentable that a film built upon the principles and importance of storytelling operates around a narrative as thin and brittle as the stained-glass windows which adorn Cherry's chambers.
100 Nights of Hero is in UK/ROI cinemas from February 6th.
