The Sun Never Sets: Love Story Threads the Needle to Land Someplace Real

By Chris Knight

Rating: A-

Jake Johnson is not always cast in comic roles, but it’s often enough that when you see him in a movie, you expect laughs. Well, you won’t get tonnes of laughs in The Sun Never Sets, but you won’t be disappointed either.

This is a thoughtful, heartfelt story about finding the right person for the right reasons at the right time, and anyone who’s ever been young (or even middle-aged) and in love can tell you that’s serious subject matter.

Johnson plays Jack, divorced with two young kids and a lovely new girlfriend named Wendy, played by Dakota Fanning. She’s actually the one we see first in the movie, checking out a boat she hopes to buy, and then learning that her best friend is pregnant. It’s not that she reacts poorly to the news; more that she doesn’t react at all.

Alaskans Jack and Wendy have differences beyond their 15-year age gap. He’s not a boat guy, a hiking guy or a camping guy. She is. He also doesn’t want any more kids. Neither does she. Or so she claims.

And so, Jack tells her he wants them to spend some time apart. She can explore a little and if in six months or so she still wants to be with him, he’ll be waiting. What could go wrong?

This could easily be a comic setup, and writer-director Joe Swanberg, who came up in the mumblecore movement of the early aughts, does infuse the story with some slice-of-life moments of levity.

Wendy reluctantly goes on a date with an awkward pal who’s been smitten with her forever, but in the midst of their beers-at-a-bar outing she runs into Chuck (Cory Michael Smith), her rugged ex, back in Anchorage to work as a pilot for a friend’s air taxi company.

He’s everything Jack isn’t — younger, more outdoorsy, more exciting. But Jack is also everything he isn’t — stable, dependable, into wine as well as beer, not afraid of an art gallery opening.

And so, we watch as Wendy tries to figure out who she wants to be with — much to the consternation of Jack, who deep down didn’t expect any competition for her heart. He pivots madly into a profession of love for her, then lurches into the dating scene, which riles up Wendy’s own anxiety.

There’s a version of this story where one or both characters are conniving and manipulative, and another where they’re darkly self-destructive. Heck, they’re probably a draft of the script that’s a rom-com.

But Swanberg adroitly threads the needle, coaxing from his talented stars deeply felt, painfully realistic performances.

How realistic? This is a movie where one of the most pivotal and emotional scenes takes place during trivia night at the local pub, backed by questions about 19th-century politician William H. Seward, and the 10 ways to get on base in Major League Baseball. (That one almost took me out of the movie, but that’s just me.)

The film, which takes its title from Alaska’s midnight sun, includes standout supporting performances and one sublime piece of physical comedy (see? A few laughs!) when Jack, at the end of a first date, isn’t sure where to put his lips, or his hands, or his head, or his heart, as he says goodnight. It sums up all the issues both protagonists face, not to mention those whose lives they cross.

Oh, and one other thing: incredible soundtrack. Alice Gerlach, Wishy, The Convenience, Yumi Zouma, Flock of Dimes, They/Live (killer name by the way), Joan Shelley. I haven’t heard of any of them, but the backing tracks through the movie added a layer of resonance without falling back on the old standards.

Maybe that was a budget thing? Regardless, it’s one more plus for this winning film.

The Sun Never Sets. Directed by Joe Swanberg. Starring Dakota Fanning, Jake Johnson, and Cory Michael Smith. In theatres September 4.