Stay the Night (Jeyapalan, 2022)
The press material for Stay the Night made it sound to me like a wacky secular version of Matthew Wilson’s The Virgins. Turns out it is more akin to a tamer version of Before Sunrise.
The Céline and Jesse roles are filled here by Grace (Andrea Bang) and Carter (Joe Scarpellino). She’s a sexually modest (I use the term non-derisively) office worker who just got passed over for a spot on the executive team. He’s a freshly cut hockey player who is freaked out rather than aroused to find his potential partner for the evening has never had sex. The streets of Toronto substitute for those of Venice, but the plot is largely the same. The couple wanders unfamiliar territory in the late hours, talking about doing it rather than, well…doing it.
That summary sounds pretty catty, but here’s the thing: the movie is not bad, really. There’s a reason why this genre is an indie staple. Talk may be cheaper than special effects, but audiences warm to familiarity and relate to the characters seeking that elusive connection. So consider this a mild endorsement.
Since I don’t have much else to say about the film, I’d like to use the rest of my space to make some metacommentary about reviews of the film. Both the reviews that endorse the film and the few I’ve found that knock it site the same reason — chemistry, or lack of it.
I find it odd that one reviewer can say the leads have obvious chemistry and another says they don’t. How is this analysis? Isn’t it just stating that you believe that the characters are attracted to one another — and attributing whatever acting choices you can’t describe to some sort of ephemeral attitudes of the actors towards one another. Why do we assume it is a compliment to actors to state that they have chemistry?
Did the relationship between Grace and Carter seem plausible? Sure. But maybe that has to do with the writing, the acting choices, and the editing. “Chemistry” is an appealing criterion to support a subjective judgment because it is unfalsifiable. Formal analysis can make reference to specific examples that can be verified or not. Stating that actors have chemistry is not analysis. It is offering a hypothetical reason for one’s own subjective response to the film.
Okay, here endeth the rant. Returning to the film, it is currently streaming on most platforms and makes an excellent date movie.
