There’s a good-natured looseness to “The Overnight,” a modest, reed-thin slice of contemporary Los Angeles life. This often ribald, ultimately thoughtful comedy of social and sexual manners hits its mark: the G-spot where raunchy, R-rated comedy overlaps with deeper observations about relationships, self-acceptance and identity. As “The Overnight” opens, Alex (Adam Scott) and his wife, Emily (Taylor Schilling), are enjoying an intimate moment in bed.
Alex and Emily’s encounter ends in coitus interruptus, which will turn out to be a powerful motif in “The Overnight.” It seems that Alex, Emily and their young son, RJ (R.J. Hermes), are new in town, eager to make friends but warily anxious as well.
Playing out over the course of one night and the wee hours of the following morning, “The Overnight” ostensibly is about the uptight Alex and Emily loosening up around the far more bohemian Kurt (Jason Schwartzman) and Charlotte (Judith Godrèche). But it’s also fraught with subtexts — about inadequacy, gender roles, the emotional rules of male friendship and class competition.
