I don’t know who Joe Swanberg is, but he was there at the screening and the audience seemed to think he was something pretty special. It seems he hasn’t had a film out for about six years, and in the past has moved around different genres and was a leader in mumblecore.

This fairly gentle and character driven drama set in Alaska is definitely not mumblecore. It is a pleasant and sharply made look at the complexities of relationships and the stupid decisions we make.

Wendy (Dakota Fanning), who I must say does not look like a Wendy, is happy in her relationship with Jack (Jake Johnson,) a divorced dad of two who has a nice house and a comfortable job as a wealth advisor.

Wendy is the kind of person who drives a backhoe for her work, does carpentry in her spare time, and likes to hike and boat and spend most of her time in the outdoors. This is not what Jack likes to do. And a fit of hubris perhaps, he recommends to her that she needs to take six months out of their life together to find out exactly what she wants. His main contention is that she wants marriage and children and he doesn’t.

Although Wendy is reluctant to do what he says, Jack is affable and confident and convincing. Of course, when she does find someone she’s interested in, he immediately regrets his decision and tries to reel her back in.

It’s kind of an interesting take on the love triangle trope. Interesting in that Wendy’s experience is central, and the two men in her life, Jack and Chuck (Cory Michael Smith), represent two different aspects of herself and her potential future. We see them all ping-pong around making poor decisions and then blaming other people for it, but Fanning is so likable that it’s hard to feel annoyed by it.

Like when I was watching Eternity (2025), I started to wonder why the choice was only between two men. Surely there is a happy life where she does what she wants to do, regardless of whether she is in a relationship or not?

I’m not sure that Joe and I agree about this, and maybe a female director might’ve given us a different ending.

Also a bit of googling about that six year hiatus shows that Swanberg has perhaps not always been super popular. He had a very public anti-Covid vax outburst in 2021 and has been criticised for boundary crossing in sex scenes in his early mumblecore films. Let’s hope he has put that behind him.