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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Positive On Bearing a Cross, May 19, 2002
The protagonist of "No One Sleeps" is Stefan Hein (played by Tom Wlaschiha), a doctoral student from a university in Berlin, who visits San Francisco to make a presentation at GGU (presumably Golden Gate University). Stefan presents an old idea, originally taken up by his father, that AIDS came about around 1978 when the US government allegedly tested varieties of sheep viruses on prisoners in return for releasing the prisoners earlier than expected. Although the reception to the presentation was rather impolite, Stefan is determined to spend some time in the City seeing if he can find any more records or people to substantiate the theory.At the university, Stefan makes three acquaintances. One is a friendly graduate student, Sascha; one is a neurologist, Dr. Richard Burroghs (played by Richard Conti), who says he found Stefan's presentation the best of the day; the third is a bearded hunk, Jeffrey Russo (played by Jim Thalman), who approaches Stefan. Meanwhile, one dead body has already shown up in a Presidio fortification. Stefan's research led him via an AIDS Project office to a club kid, whose entrance is as a corpse. At both deaths, witnesses heard music from Puccini's last grand opera, "Turandot". Stefan pokes around. The police poke around. Connections gradually appear between the characters. Some people hum tunes from "Turandot". One character is on the board of the San Francisco Opera, which is currently performing the work. Meanwhile Stefan is being very determined to hook up with a promising, though dangerous character, who works as a waiter. Is it love, lust, or research? Meanwhile, the FBI is unusually attentive to events. Climax. Incomplete resolution. Tom Wlaschiha attractively carried the movie. Jim Thalman and Richard Conti also gave good acting performances. Karl Fischer and Brian Yates did well in smaller roles as a nurse and a volunteer, respectively, for an AIDS-related service. The rest of the cast merits little comment. It was nice to have new San Francisco settings, with the Potrero, Tenderloin, and South of Market Districts shown, instead of the usual tourist areas (including Castro Street). Having one scene at the Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma was a good change of pace. The movie does bound along without giving complete back stories or explicitly tying up the loose ends. Stefan has some information before the action starts and some ideas on how to follow it up. His main methodology is walk wordlessly through sex clubs and wait for the clues and key characters to show up. He finds out about a third victim before the body is even removed from the premises. Intuitions. He is able to take a complicated route to break and enter without rehearsal. Lots of people have detailed memories of the plot of "Turandot". The relationships between the main bad guys is quite opaque. Why did Stefan keep wearing a cross? Who searched Stefan's room? Who killed one of the bad guys? Would the police be so lackadaisical? The list goes on. On a first viewing, one notices lots of loose ends. On a second viewing, one can use imagination to fill in many, but not all, of the gaps. On the "Turandot" question, local opera fans really do replay their CDs and reread the librettos of the operas selected for performance each season by the San Francisco Opera. Stefan seems to live in a gay-friendly+ apartment building; the bad guys have reason to know the opera; the coincidence is not as impossible as some think. Still, the singing of "Nessun Dorma" at the party afterward seems unlikely, as a good singer saves his voice for the big time; maybe the wine flowed too freely? My first viewing netted two stars. A second viewing netted three. A third would not earn a fourth. See it for Tom Wlaschiha, an interesting premise, and some new scenery.
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