Movie Review: 'The Sunlit Night' is Charming and Quirky

The Sunlit Night is just quirky and good natured enough to work. Star Jenny Slate plays an artist seeking a voice who earns an apprenticeship that takes her to the farthest northern point of Norway. The romantic setting, oddball sense of humor and offbeat characters are kind of my jam. It may not be for everyone, but weird characters in a unique setting is sometimes just enough to get me to recommend a movie.

The Sunlit Night stars Jenny Slate as Frances, a struggling artist whose abstract talents have yet to bear fruit. While she dreams of merely supporting herself as an artist, Frances is barely getting by, sharing bunk beds with her sister, in their parents' one bedroom New York City apartment. Mom (Jessica Hecht) and Dad (David Paymer) are also artists who’ve settled into modest gigs painting greeting cards and medical textbooks respectively.

In a desperate bid to escape her parents home and dysfunction, they’re getting divorced on top of living on top of each other, Frances applies for an apprenticeship. She dreams of going to Tokyo but when that plan doesn’t materialize, she ends up accepting an offer from a famous Norwegian painter who has recently hit hard times. Nils (Fridtjov Saheim) was once very famous but his temperament has left him foundering recently.

Nils has begun an unusual project that he hopes will get him on the map again, quite literally. He’s painting a barn entirely in geometrically aligned shades of yellow. If the project turns out, the barn will be included in a nationally publicized, in Norway, art map of famous buildings. Frances is expected to work 12 hour days doing the grunt work needed to bring the project to completion by an unspecified deadline.

Conflict arises when Frances meets Yasha (Alex Sharp). Frances’ fascination with Yasha, who has arrived from New York City as well, begins to distract her and slows the progress of the barn. I say it’s a conflict, it’s more of a complication. There isn’t too much at stake in The Sunlit Night and that’s okay. The Sunlit Night is intended to be breezy and romantic and it manages to be both, landing at 70 pleasant minutes length.

Jenny Slate is wonderful as Frances. Rather than play her as desperate or lost, she finds a unique space for Frances as someone with goals who is frustrated but not bitter and hopeful but without any overt optimism. It’s a rather tricky role to pull off as it doesn’t give much room for big dramatics and yet Slate makes it work with the force of her charm. Slate is rarely off screen in The Sunlit Night but we never for a moment tire of her presence.

The supporting cast is just the right amount of quirky and authentic. Alex Sharp is a tad bit miscast as a bummer romantic and gothy New York baker but not so much that it becomes a burden to the movie. Sharp’s Yasha has come to Norway to follow through on his father’s dying wish for a viking funeral and while you’d be forgiven for assuming that this was a far too quirky bit of storytelling, it’s handled very well and doesn’t come off as forced or awkward.

The more veteran supporting cast of Hecht, Paymer, and Zach Galifianakis as an American Viking tour guide, are each well suited to small showy moments of colorful supporting play. Admittedly,Galifianakis feels a little shoehorned in given his star power and the slightness of his role but it doesn’t detract from the movie at all. Galifianakis is good for a couple goofy laughs and doesn’t overstay his welcome or overshadow Slate's lead performance.

The Sunlit Night was written by Rebecca Dinerstein and based on Dinerstein’s own novel of the same name. Dinerstein’s material appears well paired with director David Wnendt’s charming direction which makes exceptional use of the Norwegian setting. The constant sunlight could be oppressive but rather than focusing on how unsettling too much sun can be, it’s mentioned and then just becomes part of the overall lovely aesthetic of The Sunlit Night.

The Sunlit Night is a low key favorite for me in 2020. In a strange year with so few theatrical releases I’ve been lucky to come across movies like The Sunlit Night as an alternative. I may never have seen The Sunlit Night were it not for the ongoing pandemic and while I would prefer to be at the movie theater, I can at least find comfort in my forced sheltering at home by discovering and enjoying lovely and tiny little movies like this one. .

Sweet, good natured, and quirky, The Sunlit Night arrives on most On-Demand services on Friday, July 17th.