Few storytelling devices are more tried and true than simply throwing some characters in a room together and locking the door, but that’s because it’s undeniably effective. By not allowing people to get up and leave, a film can create a pressure cooker where characters leave their comfort zones and have to confront things they rather wouldn’t. Often this scenario is used for suspense, in films as different as Die Hard, Snakes on a Plane, or Hitchcock’s Lifeboat, but it can also be used to explore social differences in movies like The Breakfast Club. The new film Two Night Stand takes this conceit and applies it to the romantic comedy, a genre that’s no stranger to gimmicks, but this one is both slightly more plausible than most and used for a definite narrative purpose.
Unemployed and fresh off a breakup that’s made her question the direction of her life, Megan (Analeigh Tipton) isn’t doing so well. Her roommate is giving none too subtle hints to get out of the apartment, but the one time she tries, she not only sees her ex, but she also is barred from the party by the bouncer. Desperate for some human contact, she sets up a profile on an online dating site and arranges a hook-up with the first seemingly sane guys she finds, Alec (Miles Teller). The next morning, she wakes up at Alec’s place in Brooklyn, having got what she came for, and is ready to go home and forget it ever happened.
Except she can’t, because a massive blizzard has dumped so much snow on New York that she literally can’t open the door outside. She’s trapped for the day in Alec’s apartment and is forced to get to know him without the alcohol and hormones that fueled their night together. Megan isn’t happy at all to be there, and the two start the day fighting, then have fun, then have deep conversations, then fight some more, and then, well, it’s a romantic comedy, you take a guess what happens.
The act of god snowstorm is a bit silly, but also somewhat smart, because it’s used here to force two people who are using online dating for its casualness and anonymity to actually stick around and learn about the person they had sex with. Instead of being able to slip out unnoticed like she wanted, Megan has to get to know a stranger, which gives her a better perspective on how she’s perceived by people. It’s also a welcome reprieve from rom-coms that rely on chance encounters and contrived barriers to characters coming together; in Two Night Stand, we have two characters meeting each other like people do in real life, by sitting and talking, only with awkwardness from the previous night hanging over them.
Two Night Stand doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it separates itself from the pack with its premise and strong performances from Teller and Tipton (also a great cameo by Michael Showalter as a blowhard weatherman). Two Night Stand exploits its snowstorm gimmick to show that face to face with someone, the facades (or online profiles) we construct to shield ourselves from intimacy fade away, and only then can you really get to know someone.
