Synopsis: An aspiring painter meets eccentric locals and a fellow New Yorker while working on a barn in Norway.
Frances is an aspiring artist whose personal life is a mess. She’s recently broken up with her boyfriend, her sister is getting married, and her parents are separating. Critics have eviscerated her latest art piece. Rather than face living in a small studio with her father, Frances accepts a job in northern Norway, where, for several weeks, the sun never sets. It’s there that Frances bonds with a reclusive painter and also finds something of a kindred spirit in Yasha, a young man from New York who is there to scatter his father’s ashes as “the top of the world”.
I have really come to admire Jenny Slate as an actress. I’ve always found her funny, but she’s a very understated dramatic actress as well. There’s such a delicate balance between Frances’s optimism and resignation, and Slate plays it to perfection. She and Fridtjov SĂĽheim, who plays the artist who has hired her, played very well off of each other. Their initial meeting is very awkward, Nils’s stoicism protesting Frances’s outgoing demeanor, but it’s quite the journey to watch them grow to understand and respect each other.
The landscape of Northern Norway is very muted but still manages to be extremely beautiful. Sometimes, I find myself enjoying mediocre movies simply because the cinematography is so gorgeous. The Sunlit Night may be one of those movies. I enjoyed Jenny Slate’s performance, and I understand the theme of traveling to another country to find oneself. Still, I can honestly say that I don’t feel as though very much happened in this movie. The plot, what little of it there was, was very slow.
Frances’s romantic interest, Yasha (Alex Sharp), was introduced a bit too late into the movie. Shifting focus from Frances to Yasha felt a bit disjointed. I wasn’t terribly invested in their connection, and if I’m being honest, I would have much rather seen more of Yasha’s estranged mother, Olyana, played by the wonderful Gillian Anderson. She was so underutilized, and it’s really a shame.
If you love painting, you may enjoy The Sunlit Night well enough. There are plenty of quiet moments when Frances, or Frances and Nils, are painting. I enjoyed that Frances pinpointed what particular paintings people looked at as she met them. But those winsome moments are too few and far between, and I just didn’t connect to The Sunlit Night as much as I had wanted to. This is one of those movies that simply felt “okay” to me in the end, and it’s not one I’ll watch again, but I’m excited to see Jenny Slate in more starring roles.
Watched: 03/12/2021
Notable Song: Count Your Blessings by Mattiel
