‘Closing Night’ Review: Sarah Paulson and Naomi Watts Are Warring Sisters in Cody Fern’s Deliciously Histrionic Melodrama

The powerhouse actresses play fragile women navigating a devastating diagnosis in this darkly comic story about the secrets that bind us.

Toward the end of the deep-feeling, deliciously histrionic drama “ Closing Night ,” the film shifts tone. The first two acts — a whirlwind of long-deferred confrontations and fiery disclosures — lean on lively dark comedy as a pair of warring sisters explode with decades of rage and resentment. Then the film slows its pace, doubling down on doleful sentimentality as it transitions into a more traditional tearjerker.