Most modern romantic comedies are generally more miss than hit, but Two Night Stand manages to defy the odds, largely due to the charming chemistry between twenty-something leads, Miles Teller and Analeigh Tipton, and the hilariously blunt dialogue by first-time screenwriter Mark Hammer. While Two Night Stand isn’t perfect—romance rarely is—it will appeal to millennials who can relate, and probably horrify their parents who can’t.
The film begins where a lot of “dates” develop these days: the Internet. Tipton (Crazy, Stupid, Love) plays Megan, an unemployed college grad recently dumped by a longtime boyfriend-fiancé. She’s mortified about regressing—aka “Benjamin Button-ing”—and spends her days in sweats, moping on the sofa. With a push, nay, an order from her friend and roommate, Faiza (Jessica Szohr), she’s on a world wide web search for some sexual healing. Megan nervously signs up for a dating site and is fielding offers within moments. After striking up an online chat with Alec (Teller), and then briefly video-calling to see if he passes a basic “psycho test,” she decides to venture across town to his Brooklyn apartment for a one-night stand.
Cut to the next morning, and Megan tries to sneak out of Alec’s apartment, only to be foiled by Mother Nature: They’re trapped together by a blizzard that’s shut down all of New York City. These two strange bedfellows are then forced to talk to and learn about each other—picking up a few bedroom improvement tips in the process.
The story is essentially a two-hander, with Tipton and Teller alone together in his apartment for much of the movie. Teller has a relaxed, onscreen persona that endeared audiences in last year’s The Spectacular Now, and Tipton keeps up brilliantly in her first lead role, effortlessly alternating between an ingenue and sex kitten. Whether bickering or bantering, the actors easily play off each other, with first-time feature director Max Nichols (son of director Mike Nichols) giving them room to play with pauses for additional laughs.