Movie review: 2 Nights Till Morning a refreshingly awkward romance

Circumstances throw Caroline (Marie-Josée Croze) and Jaakko (Mikko Nousiainen) together, but romance is thwarted by their own quirks and secrets

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2 Nights Till Morning (2 nuits jusqu’au matin)


Directed by: Mikko Kuparinen

Starring: Marie-Josée Croze, Mikko Nousiainen

Running time: 84 minutes

A Finnish DJ and a French architect walk into a bar: it doesn’t sound like the most intriguing premise for a movie, but writer-director Mikko Kuparinen presses enough emotional buttons to keep things interesting in his debut feature.

Marie-Josée Croze anchors the film with a layered performance as Caroline, a French woman on a stopover in Lithuania. With a phone pressed to her ear and a laptop in hand, Caroline is always on the go. She’s minding her own business in the hotel restaurant until she begins minding other people’s — particularly that of a tall, handsome, tattooed man at a raucous table in the far corner.

Their eyes meet, and before long Jaakko (Mikko Nousiainen) is at her table, trying to strike up a conversation. Things grind to a halt as Caroline informs him she doesn’t speak English. Not to be deterred, he presses on and the two are soon out for a night on the town, downing shooters with the locals at a neighbourhood showbar.

When she wakes up in Jaakko’s lavish hotel room the following morning, Caroline attempts to make a quick exit; but Jaakko’s not so easy to get rid of. He confronts her for trying to sneak off, and the two leave each other on an awkward note.

But events conspire to bring them back together. When all planes are grounded because of an ash cloud, Caroline ends up losing her hotel room. The laid-back Jaakko is only too happy help out, and they pick up where they left off — which in most cases would be a heated romance; in Kuparinen’s hands, it’s a stilted romance ever on the verge of being sniffed out by his characters’s quirks.

Croze can do gravitas in her sleep, and she slips into the skin of this woman who is never quite comfortable, and has a hard time letting go. Jaakko, on the other hand, appears to move about freely, unhindered by self-consciousness or doubt.

Things aren’t as simple as they seem, however, and before long both characters reveal hidden sides to their personalities and their daily lives, which doesn’t always bring them closer together.

Kuparinen fumbles at times — some of the exchanges feel forced and the plot could use a little more oomph. Still, there’s a refreshing honesty to his film that makes it ease to ignore the flaws and follow this realistic romance through to its unconventional conclusion.


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