Producers: Lovell Holder, Patrick Ward, Henry Loevner and Steven Kanter Director: Steven Kanter and Henry Loevner Screenplay: Henry Loevner Cast: Claudia Restrepo, Derrick DeBlasis, Ben Coleman, Fred Melamed, Stephanie Courtney, Will Neff, Caroline Kwan and Ron Hanks Distributor: Entertainment Squad
Grade: B
It’s a story older than the movies—a girl is engaged to be married but meets a man she finds incredibly charming, and is confronted with a dilemma: will she break off the engagement and stay with the man who might be her soul mate? Or will she stick with the commitment she’s already made, perhaps dooming herself to a lifetime of regret?
In the case of “Peak Season,” a slight but pleasant take on this venerable plot, the choice is joined to a love letter by writer Henry Loevner (who also produced, directed, shot and edited the picture with his collaborator Steven Kanter, who in turn also provides the music) to the area around Jackson, Wyoming, where it’s set. The locations in Jackson Hole, with the Tetons in the distance, are absolutely lovely.
It’s here that Max Rosen (Ben Coleman) and his fiancée Amy Jimenez (Claudia Restrepo) arrive from New York City for a week’s break from the urban grind in his parents’ vacation home. She’s quit her high-pressure job and is making wedding plans; he’s an executive at a management firm, constantly in touch with his partners back in the city.
The first night they dine with friends of his father, George and Lydia Friedman (Fred Melamed and Stephanie Courtney), who spring a surprise. George’s arranged for Loren (Derrick DeBlasis), one of the best wilderness guides around, to give them fly-fishing lessons. But almost immediately Max is called back east by a business emergency, leaving Amy to spend a few days on her own, except for a somewhat uncomfortable session with Fiona (Caroline Kwan), a sophisticated old friend of Max’s whom they’d accidentally bumped into before his departure.
And, of course, Amy’s facing the prearranged fishing lesson with Loren, a scruffy, free-spirited guy who sleeps in a camper with his dog and enjoys a complete lack of commitment to a ”normal” lifestyle. Naturally he and Amy hit it off almost immediately, teasing one another like high school classmates. And by the time Max returns, Amy’s become resentful of his habit of letting his job take precedence over her. She’d obviously like to be spending more time with Loren swinging lures into the stream and checking out the hiking trails.
Loren misses her being around as well, and grows disenchanted as clients and friends like Josh (Will Neff) and Jeremy (Ron Hanks), who’ve fallen in love with the place and expressed a desire to reside there permanently, are called back to the city by ties both romantic and business-oriented.
The question, of course, is whether Amy will follow them in leaving or decide that a life with Loren in Wyoming is what she really wants.
We’ve seen this kind of romantic triangle many times in the past in movies much slicker than this one. But “Peak Season” brings a disarmingly simple, easygoing charm to an old-fashioned romantic triangle set in Big Sky Country. Restrepo and DeBlasis have a laid-back chemistry that comes across as natural rather than calculated, and Coleman manages to make third wheel Max obliviously insensitive rather than crassly chauvinistic. And it’s always nice to encounter veteran Melamed, even in what’s little more than a glorified cameo.
And those shots of the Jackson Hole landscape are often breathtaking, even if otherwise the physical production is nothing to write home about.