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Patricia Rozema's odd melodrama tells Camille's story. A Calvinist professor at a Christian college, she is on the fast track to a position as co-Chaplain of the university along with her conservative boyfriend Martin (Henry Czerny). Suddenly, circus performance artist Petra (Rachael Crawford) comes into her life, and everything changes. Petra is almost obsessively infatuated with Camille, and the once-traditionalist Camille very quickly finds herself developing an inexplicable attraction for Petra.
Unfortunately, this obsession and inexplicability together create a situation which is difficult to empathize with, largely because Camille's motivation is a complete mystery to us. The movie is thankfully well-constructed technically, with nicely-crafted cinematography, tight editing, and an interesting variety of settings and costumes. Of course, this can't overcome a very weak story, but it does give the film a worthwhile aspect to balance the plot.
By the end of When Night Is Falling, we're not really sure if Camille's metamorphosis was a spur of the moment infatuation or if she really harbored these emotions deep inside. The producers are obviously hoping you'll go for the latter, but I don't think we'll ever know.
