The Sunlit Night
Directed by David Wnendt
Written by Rebecca Dinerstein Knight (based on her novel of the same name)
Starring Jenny Slate, Alex Sharp, Zach Galifinakas, Fridtjov Såheim and Gillian Anderson
Running time: 1 hour and 46 minutes
Unrated, but contains some mild sex and female nudity
by Ian Hrabe
Jenny Slate has come a long way from being the Saturday Night Live cast member who infamously said the word “Fuck” during her debut appearance on the show. While that sort of misstep might forever haunt an actor, Slate has not only developed her dramatic chops, but she has become one of those actors who can carry an otherwise fine little indie movie into something that punches way above its weight. Though Slate is best known for her insanely brilliant comedic work on TV shows like Kroll Show and Parks and Recreation and her voice work in The Secret Life of Pets and Bob’s Burgers, her dramatic work in films like Obvious Child, Landline and now The Sunlit Night not only showcases her versatility, but establishes her as an actor worth going out of your way to see in whatever she is doing.
In The Sunlit Night, Slate plays an American painter named Frances who takes an internship working for an irascible artist in a part of Norway where the sun never sets. The set-up is your usual “young person trying to find their voice and figure out what they’re supposed to do” plot, but Slate is magnetic and you really pull for her. It’s easy to see how this could have been just another indie movie with another lead actor. The film gets another boost from its excellent supporting cast and characters. There’s Nils (Fridtjov Såheim), the aforementioned cranky artist who Frances lives with and assists in painting a barn in an attempt to get it on a tourist’s map of Norwegian art. There’s “Haldor” (Zack Galifinakas) who operates the Renaissance Fest-esque Viking compound next door to the barn painting (and is deadly serious about the whole viking thing). There’s Yasha, (Alex Sharp); a kindred spirit to Frances, who has come to give his father the viking funeral he wanted. And then there is Gillian Anderson who, in typical Gillian Anderson fashion, steals the show when she comes on screen, as Yasha’s estranged mother.
Though The Sunlit Night is romantic-comedy adjacent, it has a dramatic edge that keeps the story emotionally grounded while still being a pretty delightful little movie. It’s refreshing that the romance in this film between Frances and Yasha is second to Frances’s development as a painter and a person. Her life isn’t defined by a relationship, and the relationship is just part of her palate of personal growth. That said, their relationship feels like it’s missing an extra gear and Yasha feels more like a prop than a well-rounded character. That’s a shame because Alex Sharp has an incredible screen presence and the little backstory they gave him was compelling enough that I wanted more.
Sometimes there’s a little trepidation when a writer adapts their own work to the screen because it seems like it would be harder for them to make the cuts necessary for the story to translate to the abbreviated form, but Rebecca Dinerstein’s adaptation of her novel is quite deft. The script is tight, but has a novelistic tone about it with its use of voiceover. Again, voiceover can be tough to pull off as, half the time, it feels like an unnecessary addition forced upon a film by a movie studio because they think the audience won’t understand what they are seeing on the screen (Ad Astra is a recent example of this), but here it works and both helps develop Slate’s character and punctuates the loneliness of living in what feels like the edge of the world. Director David Wnendt does a great job capturing these moments when all of these lonely characters connect, and really brings a sense of warmth to a film dominated by grays (and one big yellow barn).
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