Rating: R | Runtime: 102 minutes
Release Date: August 28th, 2026 (USA)
Studio: Independent Film Company / Sapan Studios
Director(s): Joe Swanberg
Writer(s): Joe Swanberg

We’ll see.

Wendy (Dakota Fanning) is content with life. She’s not happy, though. And her boyfriend Jack (Jake Johnson) sees it. Not in the way she acts with him and his two kids, but in the way she talks about herself. Whereas he can get her anything she wants financially (his work is based in NYC despite living in Anchorage), he’s made it clear he’s not interested in the things she’s always wanted. Re-marrying. More kids. A boat. A life that dares to embrace nature.

So, when she comes home after meeting with some old friends and hearing the news that her BFF Lindsay (Debby Ryan) is pregnant, the sadness inherent to that contentment becomes obvious. Jack, being a sensible guy who understands his shortcomings insofar as letting her be his “other half” without ever really trying to be hers, tells Wendy she needs to take the summer and truly figure out if compromising her dreams for him is what she desires. He hopes it is.

It’s a crazy demand that writer/director Joe Swanberg never shies from. Whether Wendy’s incredulity at her boyfriend telling her to take space after she devotes herself to him or Jack’s remorseful disbelief upon realizing he sabotaged his own happiness by creating a plan for her to serendipitously rekindle a bond with her ex (Cory Michael Smith’s Chuck), there’s a lot of loud conversations and confusion stemming from their mutual complicity to their own demise.

The question at the center of The Sun Never Sets is therefore which of its three possibilities will result. Will the time apart and ensuing chaos bring Wendy and Jack closer? Will their two years together position them to appreciate when someone better suited to who they are arrives? Or will they realize their entire union was based on a knee-jerk impulse to not be alone after having not been previously and thus discover that’s what they both really need?

We’re talking about pretty universal themes being processed through a sort of reverse romance wherein the perfect couple separates at the beginning before noticing all the mistakes they made rather than two people tired of repeatedly making the same mistakes coming together to become the perfect couple. This fertile subversion helps to bring relatable comedy into an awkward emotional landscape that arises when you realize love isn’t always enough.

And while the film is a two-headed monster as far as giving Fanning and Johnson ample time to prove themselves as flawed, three-dimensional characters, its focus does point more towards the former’s Wendy. This is partially because Smith is a de facto third lead and thus demands we spend more time with her, but it’s also because these men are lunatics who either learn their lesson too late or not at all. In some ways, their ineptitude might save her from herself.

Because what does Jack mean he doesn’t care about the outdoors? Seriously? You don’t have to love camping to see the woman you love does. So, you take her camping. You let her introduce your kids to her passions and further allow her to embed herself into the family. That he only sees this fact in hindsight as a means to “win her back” proves he might not be worth her compromise. It’s great he’s learned how to be a human but put it into practice with someone else.

Chuck is even worse, though. Wendy broke up with him for a reason—one that he knows is true enough to avoid spending any time with her friends despite his attempts to make this second chance work. His idea of growth is agreeing to settle down, but he still refuses to do so unless it’s on his terms. And yet he still finds the entitlement necessary to call her out when his selfishness gives her the room to bring Jack back into the fold. Run, Wendy. Run.

Yes, I say this in jest since she isn’t perfect either. But while their imperfections affect her life, hers don’t impact theirs. Wendy’s issues stem more from self-destructive tendencies that have her constantly putting others’ wants in front of her own. Because she doesn’t want to go back to the dating scene. She doesn’t want to start over when she’s willing to put these men first. But seeing their antics through the lens of a competition for her heart is a bridge too far.

Now it’s all in the open. Now she can see how they try to manipulate things and scream “hypocrisy” when she’s pretty much just doing what they said she should do. Wendy’s contentment gave them the power to never need to feel jealous. The reason Jack suggested the separation was because he presumed there were no viable candidates in Alaska to usurp him. And since she’s always honest with both, their petty responses are all she should need to get her answer.

Even then, however, it’s not easy to pull the trigger and intentionally choose to embrace that alone time and figure things out before jumping back in. Wendy loves both these men and doesn’t want to let them go, so the cycle continues to frustrate her while entertaining us. It’s not a funny situation when you look at it practically or are one of the parties experiencing it, but it definitely is when you’re standing and watching the carnage from afar.

Johnson and Smith are great in similar roles from opposite sides of the spectrum exposing the complexities of relationships a lot of men refuse to accept until it’s too late. We laugh at Jack’s epiphanies and Chuck’s impertinence while feeling Wendy’s plight. And we do feel it because Fanning is at her very best. The joy. The rage. The uncertainty. The fear. Her sincere vulnerability is only bested by the courage to finally say enough is enough. Not to them, but to herself.

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Jake Johnson and Dakota Fanning in Joe Swanberg’s THE SUN NEVER SETS; courtesy of Independent Film Company.