Overnight

I didn't expect too much when I opted to watch this on my Netflix, especially since I had never heard of it before. But halfway through I found myself loving it. There are a lot of crappy, utterly empty romantic comedies out there after which I feel robbed of 90 minutes of my life, but this isn't one of them. This movie actually caused me to create an IMDb account because I thought it deserved a good review. It had all the really important elements: likable, believable characters with unique stories and perspectives, an interesting and well thought-out plot, good dialogue, and decent acting. And it was actually FUNNY, unlike a lot of wannabe romantic "comedies" who try to get by on Harlequin schmooze. I loved the non-traditional take that was simultaneously believable and even, brace yourself, realistic. Some of the best parts of this movie come about because of the humorous interplay between the characters as they force us to laugh at our own prejudices and attitudes. It ends up being a movie with more than a few different story lines woven into one, and it's refreshing that all of those story lines don't exist solely for the purpose of propping up a two dimensional relations; they seem to have some substance of their own. I couldn't give it more than a 7, because hey, it's not Oscar worthy, but this movie is highly enjoyable and seriously underrated.

The previous review does a pretty decent job of describing the overall movie. This review is just about the portrayal of the Christian character in this movie:

But this is no 'Christian movie'. It has an R rating because of sexual themes and language. In most Hollywood movies, the Christian character, is usually trivialized as an obnoxious caricature of a either a Bible-thumping Preacher, or a pathetic wimp. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that the co-pilot Christian was, in the end, not portrayed that way. He started out seeming pretty nerdy and out-of-touch by reading his 'Holy Bible' in the cockpit. But the character became a real person as the movie progressed. And he even read a nice passage about love from 1 Cor. 13. I was very surprised that the Bible got such decent air time, for once. Good job Valerie!

"Overnight" starts as a typical romantic comedy but then ventures into a comedic romance, where comedy comes first. The romantic elements all seem to be part of the joke. Jenny (Rachel Blanchard) and Tom (James D'Arcy) meet in LAX fresh from disastrous break-ups (although it was over a year ago for Tom) and are both way too flighty and maladjusted to know how to seek self-comfort.

Then we meet a handful of mostly equally maladjusted passengers all on the red eye from Los Angeles to New York. These supporting characters are played by a range of hard-working talented actors to hard-working established, well-respected actors, to struggling up-and-comers. Two overly-bitter flight attendants were supposed to provide the comedy at the beginning, but it wasn't clear why we needed to endure such despicable people and worse writing.

Shortly thereafter, we were introduced to simple, but effective, "random" airport screening selections, and a famous rapper trying to figure out how normal people fly. This unconventional trio surprisingly added the best moments of comedy and the best characterizations.

Our lead couple of two attractive thirty-somethings go from strangers to puppy love surrenderers to an argumentative married couple to hurtful divorcees all in the length of the plane ride. While it was vaguely amusing, there are 30-second commercials which do it better.

Last but not least the pilot and co-pilot get into philosophical discussions on marriage, sex and God versus atheism. Don't sell it short since the pilot is played by Anthony LaPaglia after all. 2012 has also seen an odd trend where the male protagonist in romantic indies has a need, desire and ability to explain love and the universe in physics terms. Here, Tom was a physics teacher and it wasn't nearly as bad as previous films but not the best either (see The Diary of Preston Plummer for that).

"Overnight" is light, sweet and funny enough to work as a romantic comedy. And if you want it to work on another level, it even takes the characters on a surprising and fairly satisfactory journey of self-discovery. (You'll just need to turn it off three minutes early if you want their trajectory to be physically sound).

I wanted to like this movie, but I found the two lead characters overacting their parts horribly and thus they seemed stupid. Let's face facts, nobody with that much need and who is that vulnerable should fly on a red eye flight and risk having a dialog with anyone. Just sleep for heaven's sake and go see your therapist in the morning. I found the character of the guy who has the dog offensive - what kind of a woman dates a guy like that? What kind of a writer writes a part like that? Who on earth would have even bothered to put this storyline to any movie? I did enjoy the dialog between the pilot and the co-pilot and enjoyed those actors, particularly the pilot. Although I love romantic comedies, I did not find this romantic or comical. Just a waste of time.