Most love triangles want you to pick a side. The Sun Never Sets makes that almost impossible from the start.
Dakota Fanning plays Wendy, who finds herself caught between Jack, her older boyfriend played by Jake Johnson, and Chuck, a younger ex played by Cory Michael Smith. Set in Alaska, it sounds like the kind of setup where you can see the “right” choice coming pretty quickly.
And, at first, I thought I did.
Chuck seems like the obvious person to root for. He represents the possibility of the life Wendy wants, including having children, and there’s an easy pull toward the idea that maybe this is the path she was supposed to take all along.
Then the movie starts making things a lot less comfortable.
The more time you spend with both Jack and Chuck, the harder it becomes to feel confident about either one. My sympathies kept shifting, and that was easily the part I enjoyed most. Just when I thought I knew who I was rooting for, something would make me question it.
More importantly, I never really knew what Wendy was going to do.
That uncertainty gives the movie its tension. It doesn’t need some giant twist or overly dramatic reveal to keep things moving. The suspense comes from watching her weigh two very different futures while neither choice ever feels completely clean or obvious.
A lot of love triangles are only complicated for the character in the middle. The audience usually knows exactly who they want to win. The Sun Never Sets is more interesting because it keeps that uncertainty on both sides of the screen.
It’s well done, enjoyable, and surprisingly hard to predict. By the end, I wasn’t just wondering who Wendy would choose. I was still trying to figure out who I wanted her to choose.
*The Sun Never Sets*, and Neither Does the Uncertainty
A familiar love triangle gets a lot more interesting when neither choice feels obvious. The Sun Never Sets keeps shifting your loyalties right along with its main character.
