The Sun Never Sets Review: Dakota Fanning is fantastic in Joe Swanberg’s messy romantic drama

Plot: Wendy believes she’s perfectly happy in her relationship, until her older boyfriend, Jack, who is divorced with children, insists they take a break to make sure she’s truly okay giving up on the idea of marriage and babies. During this time, Wendy unexpectedly runs into her ex, Chuck, who reignites her carefree and spontaneous side, and suddenly seems to want a family. The three of them navigate a chaotic, confusing, and often funny relationship triangle, reminding us that the pursuit of love is beautiful and messy all at once.

Review: Life is messy, and when movies can successfully look at the tough and realistic moments people face in relationships, it can make for powerful storytelling. A major figure in the indie film world of mumblecore, writer/director Joe Swanberg’s latest is a showcase for Dakota Fanning as a young woman torn between two very different romantic paths. Reuniting Swanberg with his four-time collaborator, Jake Johnson, as well as Cory Michael Smith, The Sun Never Sets is a touching, funny, sad, and wonderfully acted look at the messy place one woman finds herself in and how she gets through to the other side. One of Swanberg’s strongest films to date, The Sun Never Sets also gives Dakota Fanning the chance to play a role unlike many she has played before, resulting in one of her finest performances.

The Sun Never Sets is set in Alaska, where the far north gets less darkness than other places on Earth. Wendy (Dakota Fanning) is a construction worker who is content with her older boyfriend, Jack (Jake Johnson), with whom she expects to be in a long-term relationship for the rest of her life. Jack does not enjoy the outdoors like Wendy does, nor does he want more children, but when Wendy’s friend Lindsay (Debby Ryan) announces her pregnancy, Jack gives Wendy an ultimatum to take a break from their relationship and date other men to get it out of her system and prove to herself she is ready to settle down without getting married or having her own kids. Wendy reluctantly agrees and runs into her ex, Chuck (Cory Michael Smith), a pilot with whom she immediately feels a spark, bringing them back to where they left off romantically. Of course, this means Jack’s plan backfires, and he wants to win Wendy back before she leaves him for Chuck. But, as we all know, life is not as simple as that. Joe Swanberg has long mined the awkward corners of realistic relationships, and this is no exception.

Filmed on location in Alaska, The Sun Never Sets is an apt title not only for its geographic setting but also as a reference to Wendy’s romantic crossroads. Wendy has a stable and loving partner in Jack, who supports her and dotes on her, but is not in a place where he wants to experience the marriage and childbirth milestones he has already gone through. Chuck, on the other hand, is in his early thirties and is open to getting married and having kids, but he does not feel the need to pretend to support Wendy’s interests and friends if they don’t align with his own wants. All three primary actors are excellent at playing off of each other and the relationships between their characters. Dakota Fanning is at the center of it all as she explores Wendy’s difficult choice between Jack and Chuck, or potentially, neither. It is a milestone unlike the one Wendy was hoping to experience at this point in her life, as she also contemplates buying a boat reminiscent of the one her father used to take her sailing when she was a kid. Dakota Fanning doesn’t bring Hollywood glitz or glamour to the role; instead, she inhabits Wendy as a very realistic, down-to-earth person faced with a very difficult choice that many of us have dealt with in our own lives.

Jake Johnson partners with Joe Swanberg for the fourth time here in his most dramatic role in quite some time. On the heels of his pickleball comedy, The Dink, and his directorial debut Self Reliance, Johnson plays Jack as likable but equally torn between choosing Wendy as the right fit romantically and as a stepmother to his kids, even though the decade-plus age gap between them puts another level of stress on them. Cory Michael Smith, best known as Edward Nygma in Gotham and for his portrayal of Chevy Chase in Saturday Night, brings a charm to his portrayal of Chuck that is endearing and also shows how vastly different Chuck’s life is from Jack’s. Both men have their strengths, weaknesses, and foibles that all come through in their natural performances opposite Dakota Fanning. A lot of The Sun Never Sets is interactions between Wendy and Jack or Wendy and Chuck, with a few select moments featuring different combinations of characters. This is a movie about conversations, and the natural, improvised feel of the dialogue goes a long way to lending the film a realistic feel without turning into a boring recreation of minute details of someone’s life.

Joe Swanberg based The Sun Never Sets on his own personal experience going through a breakup. Setting the film in Alaska provides some stunning visual backdrops through Wendy and Chuck’s camping trips, while the more urban and suburban locales feel like they could be in any typical city. The everyday feel of the film evokes Swanberg’s signature style that draws from the dialogue-heavy work of Woody Allen and The Duplass Brothers. Swanberg does a great job of creating characters around his own age as well as decades younger, with neither generation feeling like a caricature or stereotype. Swanberg himself appears in a minor role alongside Anna Konkle, Karley Sciortino, and Jake Johnson’s New Girl co-star Lamorne Morris. Everyone digs into the casual and improvisational style of Swanberg’s filmmaking approach, but The Sun Never Sets never feels like a slapdash indie effort thanks to the excellent performances from the entire cast.

Dakota Fanning has never been better as she portrays an adult woman in what amounts to a coming-of-age film, but for adults. Similar to her sister Elle’s recent Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Dakota Fanning has forged in Wendy a woman who is a perfect perfectly encapsulates what being a grown-up feels like today. The Sun Never Sets is funny and heartbreaking in equal measure without needing to turn into a fantastical fairy-tale romance. The Alaskan backdrop takes an everyday journey that countless people experience all the time and sets it against majestic nature. Any movie that can go from a construction worker digging ditches to arguing in a men’s room about true love and then showcasing mountains and rivers while feeling rooted in the human experience of love and independence is something special.

The Sun Never Sets opens everywhere on September 4th.