While visiting Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with her fiancé, a woman finds herself enchanted — not just with the beautiful views of the Tetons, but with a fishing guide who lives out of his car. If that sounds like a Mad Libs plot for a new Hallmark movie, what follows is actually a film more rife with millennial hipster clichés than saccharine sweet pandering. And yet, it’s also one that finds pockets of profound beauty. Directed by Steven Kanter and Henry Loevner (the duo behind the Covid-fueled breakup film The End of Us), Peak Season follows Amy (Claudia Restrepo), a consultant who is afflicted with a minor case of ennui regarding her professional life. Her soon-to-be-husband Max (Ben Coleman) takes her on a trip to Jackson Hole for a little R&R and a lot of (at last) wedding planning. But when Max gets called away suddenly (which seems to happen often in his supply chain logistics job), Amy is left to her fly fishing lesson with Loren (Derrick Joseph DeBlasis) alone.
As these things go, Amy and Loren are immediately characterized as opposites; where Amy has succumbed to the pressures of adulthood, the corporate world, and a lackluster relationship, Loren is blessedly free, eschewing conventional standards to live out of his car and make money through odd outdoors and restaurant gigs. The chemistry between Amy and Loren is instant — unbelievably so, in truth — and they quickly bond and begin spending more time together. Between trips to the rodeo and hikes in the Grand Tetons, Amy soon finds herself putting off those wedding plans and dreaming about more time in the mountains with Loren.
But before you indulge any eye-rolling, it’s to the film’s immense benefit that Restrepo and DeBlasis boast an easy chemistry, making their characters’ quick friendship/situationship easy to believe. In fact, that charm and sense of calm applies to Peak Season in general; mostly absent any capital-D drama, the film authentically nails the drift of days, both in the lulled rhythms of nature’s retreat and, less romantically, the way that those days can turn into years of sameness. In its lesser moments, the film follows too closely to the obvious rom-dramedy arc, ladling on basic jokes about micro-dosing, Crossfit, and social media-obsessed city folk. But for every instance of a clichéd storyline stunting the film, its earnest, relaxed performances save it from mere indie rehash — as do the stunning views of Wyoming’s unequaled natural vistas, a cheat code for gorgeous compositions.
Peak Season also notably explores the idea of “vacation you,” the idealized version of oneself that emerges when removed from the pressures of daily life. Like many, it’s easy for Amy to believe that the problems of her life have been solved by the Jackson air, but it doesn’t take long before she realizes the issues she sought to escape have merely followed her into this picturesque locale. Nothing too profound there in and of itself, but in its more subtle movements, Peak Season manages to critique the transience (or outright falsity) of vacation-induced self-improvement in keener ways that expected, while also delicately surveying the impact of tourism on local communities. And so, what at first seems to be a film driven by tropes and guided by familiar beats gives way to a quieter, more contemplative one that marries a visually arresting exploration of the natural world with genuine introspective journeying.
DIRECTOR: Henry Kanter & Henry Loevner; CAST: Claudia Restrepo, Derrick Joseph DeBlasis, Ben Coleman, Fred Melamed; DISTRIBUTOR: Entertainment Squad; IN THEATERS: August 2; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 22 min.
