The Sunlit Night

This is a Jenny Slate project, she is Producer and stars as Frances. She was 36 or 37 when this was filmed so we will go with that age for her character. Her mother and father are both artists of different kinds, in Manhattan. She is trying her hand at art and as the movie opens three art critics are examining one of her colorful abstract paintings. They are not impressed, perhaps the translation is "Go find some other career."

Then in quick succession she finds out her younger sister is getting married and her parents are splitting up. She needs to change her life, she needs to get away from her familiar things and places. She accepts a summer internship in a secluded place in northern Norway, in Lofoten where the sun never sets in summer. She will work for a well-known artist. When she gets there she finds they will be painting a barn and she will live in a small trailer at water's edge. With a young goat!

The movie is about that summer. Slate is good in the role and the movie is suitably quirky. There is nudity, but not erotic nudity. It all fits very well. The cinematography is excellent, making good use of the natural beauty of the area. The summer is difficult in many ways but overall very useful for Frances, she has a new perspective on her life and her art takes a new direction.

At home, streaming on Amazon Prime.

This film, like all art, is in the perspective, and there is so much of it in this great little film. Characters you care about - one way or the other. People you know. Humor. Disappointment - in yourself and others. Some things in it sneak up on you. The one main art piece at the top of the world took my breath away! WOW! Watching the completion of "It" was worth watching the whole film. Now I want one. It's quiet. It's subtle. It's smart. Enjoy!

Reading during the post-film credits that the film was based on a novel, I was not surprised. It had that feeling of abbreviation, i.e., that the various elements of the story were taken from the novel and thrown together to make a cohesive film. I enjoyed the film a lot, however, I think there could have been both more, and less. More in terms of a deepening of the relationship between the main character, Fran, and Yakov, the guy who winds up being in the same remote location in Northern Norway. Less in terms of the whole Viking piece in which Zach G. is an American playing at being a Viking King or some such thing. Then there was Fran's relationship with the painter she worked for which was not developed, and then the model who sat for her. The film was perhaps too short. But as I've said, I liked it a lot. I like Jenny Slate, and the scenery was quite spectacular.

It's how a painter grow up via the journey of herself from her home to a new place. The romance part is not strong but the way of how a painter become recognize is more the focus of the story. It's quite comfortable when watching indeed. Nothing huge but just cozy.

There is roughly a two month stretch in late summer when the sun never fully sets on The Lofoten Islands of northern Norway. To visitors, this can be most disorienting. As it was for Frances, the character brilliantly brought to life by Jenny Slate (excellent also in 2014's underrecognized "Obvious Child") in the enchanting new dramedy "The Sunlit Night".

I was particularly drawn to this unusual tale of a New York painter (Slate) who accepts a job assisting an iconic but fading Norwegian artist attempting to resuscitate his career by painting a barn yellow (I said it was unusual). My dear dad is Norwegian-born and has been to The Lofotens many times.

As Frances journeys through this Scandinavian Odyssey by the sea she encounters a tourist village of modern-day Vikings (Zac Galifianakis is hilarious as a horde leader), a nude portrait model she recruits from a local grocery store and a young guy/love interest in the throes of family turmoil. That's a lot to process, no matter where you are. And it all manages to come together in a most delicious smorgasbord (I know, I know, that's Swedish) of stunning scenery, simulated swordplay and self-discovery.

The only thing missing was the lutefisk. But then again, to most not indigenous to "The Land of The Midnight Sun", that's a good thing.

Tuller Norge! Uff da!