THE OVERNIGHT

US, 2015, 79 minutes, Colour.
Adam Scott, Taylor Schilling, Jason Schwartzman, Judith Godreche.
Directed by Patrick Brice.

While two little boys do have a sleepover during this film, the overnight is that for their parents.

This is a brief film which focuses on sexuality. Some who have commented on the IMDb say that the film was unpredictable. However, audiences who have seen many adult or erotic dramas will not find it unpredictable at all.

Adam Scott, executive producer of the film and having a lead role after his being a strong supporting cast member in so many films, comes with his wife, Taylor Schilling, from Seattle to Los Angeles with their young son. He is the home parent. She goes to work. He is rather reticent while she urges him to make friends.

At the park one afternoon when he and his son want to go home, his wife turns up, and the little boy makes friends with another boy playing there. His father, Jason Schwartzman, approaches, makes conversation, invites the couple to his house to meet his wife and have a pizza night.

This is California and there are intimations that, probably, Schwartzman and his wife, are swingers – as we have seen in so many films. This is the direction in which the film goes.

The evening starts very genially, with a meal, admiration of the house, putting the youngsters to bed. There is some drinking, some drugtaking. Schwartzman’s wife, Judith Godreche is French and they look at some commercials she made for breast enhancement. Schwartzman is an artist and takes Scott to the basement to look at his colourful but dubious paintings, makes him pose for suggestive photos, the film becoming ever more suggestive even as the two women begin to speak intimately.

One of the key elements of the film is penis envy, quite a focus of discussion, of visuals, and of Scott’s character coming to terms with himself and feeling a certain liberation.

The hesitation character is Scott’s wife, voicing a certain amount of reserve, some suspicion, especially when she shares some excessive behaviour on the part of Schwartzman’s wife.

And, the film does move towards what might have been anticipated, discussion about sharing spouses, as well as aspects of same-sex attraction.

The film ends with an amount of American reticence, the couples meeting in the park later, not wanting to pursue the sexual adventures they had participated in, Schwartzman and his wife finding new meaning in their marriage, the other couple feeling that they had been enlightened and liberated in some way.

So, depending on expectations, the film is familiar material or surprisingly questioning material.