Two Night Stand, film review: Far-fetched screwball romance is charming but contrived
(15) Max Nichols, 84 mins. Starring: Miles Teller, Analeigh Tipton, Jessica Szohr
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This attempt as a latter-day screwball romance, released in time for Valentine's Day, is charming in parts but also contrived. Analeigh Tipton and Miles Teller (the young drummer from Whiplash) play a couple stranded in an apartment during a snowstorm. They've connected online and met in his apartment for a one-night stand, only to become stuck with each other till the snow melts.
The director Max Nichols, son of Mike Nichols (of The Graduate and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? fame) has some of his father's flair for barbed comedy.
In a virtual two-hander, Teller and Tipton make engaging leads. Both are bright but mixed-up – which is why they've resorted to having sex with strangers.
Nonetheless, as they get high, struggle with faulty plumbing, play table tennis, bicker, confess dark secrets and, of course, fall in love, the film becomes ever more gooey.
Mark Hammer's far-fetched screenplay pulls in two different directions at once. The film wants both to be a contemporary comedy with a rough edge and to provide fairy-tale-like escapism – and it can't manage both.
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