When I was in my early teens, my family and I made a habit of taking cross-country trips (I grew up in the Washington, DC, area). We’d always take a different route and end up at a different West Coast destination, but one of the most memorable places we ever stopped was a small Wyoming town called Jackson Hole, which just happens to be the setting of Peak Season, the latest work from Steven Kanter and Henry Loevner (The End of Us; Loevner also wrote the film). This isn’t the Jackson Hole I remember; it’s been partially taken over by people with money and become a wealthy resort town, and it’s that tension between the locals who feel like they’re being pushed out and the money-flush entitled that serves as the backdrop for a story about a young bride-to-be on a summer vacation with her ambitious fiancé.
Amy (Claudia Restrepo) and Max (Ben Coleman) arrive in Jackson Hole to stay at his uncle’s fancy getaway property (complete with wine cellar), but his work won’t stop scheduling meetings for him during his time off, which he feels obliged to take, interfering with their alone time. He books them a fly-fishing lesson with a local wilderness expert named Loren (Derrick Joseph DeBlasis), but has to back out when a client calls an emergency meeting. Amy decides to go to the lesson alone, and she and Loren hit it off and end up hanging out at various spots around town. While Max is certainly a nice guy (thankfully the filmmakers don’t make him an asshole), Amy seems attracted to Loren’s laid-back vibe and passion for living a very simple life (he lives in his car with his dog).
Max is inevitably called away on business, so this clears the way for Amy and Loren to spend the week together, exploring the beauty of the Tetons and a few manmade establishments (bars) as well. It becomes clear that feelings are growing, leading Amy to question whether she’ll go back to New York City with Max at the end of this trip.
Not played like a romantic comedy, Peak Season is more of a serious examination (or the beginning of one) of a woman’s dilemma in feeling very strongly about two people. It’s clear that Amy did not grow up with money and often feels uncomfortable around the wealthy people with whom Max often finds himself. There’s an early dinner sequence with the young couple and rich older friends played by Fred Melamed and Stephanie Courtney (the Progressive lady!), and while they seem to adore Amy, she clearly feels out of place in their world. On the other hand, Loren is someone who has a tough time feeling any love or sympathy for the rich and seems to be in a perpetual state of trying to convince his friends who have moved away (or are planning to) to come back (or never leave in the first place).
The final scenes in Peak Season aren’t filled with heightened drama or explosive confrontation as Amy decides what to do, but that doesn’t keep them from being emotionally fraught. It’s one of the most believable decisions I’ve ever seen made in a movie that’s effectively a mumblecore soap opera in which being relatable is the key to its success as a drama. The added bonus of the stunning scenery and having so much of the film take place outdoors truly did make this movie something unexpectedly satisfying.
The film begins playing in theaters on Friday.
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