As the writer of such controversial classics like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and The Last Temptation of Christ, Paul Schrader's place in cinema's literary pantheon is assured. As a director, however, despite the complex, cerebral power of films as diverse as Hardcore, Cat People, Mishima, Patty Hearst and The Comfort of Strangers, wide critical and commercial success continues to elude him. In Light Sleeper, Schrader has fashioned yet another moody, atmospheric paean to a character that continues to both fascinate and obsess him, to wit: the quintessential loner adrift on a psychological plane well outside society's conservative perimeters. Willem Dafoe stars as John LaTour, a former junkie now working as a drug courier for a slick, upscale outfit headed by the smooth sophisticatd Ann, played by Susan Sarandon. Welcome everywhere but belonging nowhere, LaTour's growing disenchantment with his rudderless existence is further compounded by a chance encounter with his former girlfriend. Her subsequent violent death is the catalyst which propells him to exorcise his demons through an equally violent course of action. Powered by Dafoe's haunting, low-key performance and Michael Bean's hypnotic score, Light Sleeper finds Schrader at his existential best.
