The 45-year-old Adam (Patrick Hivon) should be the happiest man in the world. He owns a dog kennel, meaning that he is surrounded by animals showering him with constant unconditional love and attention. But he suffers from solastalgia, defined as a deep and sustained anxiety about the future of the planet in the face of an increasingly unpredictable climate.
In a conversation with his therapist, he talks about the multi-level collapse of the planet. As he puts it, There Is No Alternative. But those initials also stand for Tina (Piper Perabo), with whom he falls madly in love. Perhaps love is the bulwark we need against total devastation. Perhaps you will find out more if you also watch the Quebecois romantic comedy Peak Everything (Anne Émond, 2025), a small yet utterly charming oddball story set in a world on the brink of collapse.
Due to his depressive tendencies, Adam buys a solar lamp. But, even in combination with a variety of prescriptions, nothing seems to lift him from his somnambulant mood. So, he calls the number on the box’s side and starts a lively conversation with the English-speaking technician Tina. Soon, these conversations about the world’s end give Adam something to live for.
This mixture of romance and existential anxiety reminded me of Woody Allen’s work, particularly the scene in Annie Hall (1977) where Alvy Singer flirts with the eponymous Annie (Diane Keaton) while sharing his favourite books on death. But here, we are not just talking about the death of the individual. We’re talking about the doom of the entire planet.
Hivon, who you might recognise in a small role in 2023’s Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Ariane Louis-Seize), is the true star here, able to imbue what is ostensibly a rather silly premise with genuine sense of pathos, his sad sack expression both a great empathy generator and perfect for comic reaction shots. Likewise, Perabo, who has had an intermittently interesting career since her breakout role in Coyote Ugly (David McNally, 2000), goes far beyond generic clichés of the-woman-who-will-save-everything, fleshing out Tina in unique and fascinating ways.
This is all sustained by a complex interweaving of tones that mix broad comedy with fantastical elements, serious voiceover with goofy dialogue, typical shot-reaction shots with long, widescreen takes. Anne Émond, providing the type of quirky indie that was so prevalent in Hollywood as late as the 00s — Stephen Belber’s Management (2008) randomly comes to mind — shows that you don’t have to sacrifice quality for laughs, and is able to keep things moving with great aplomb. With an even split between French and English, this festival film has real crossover appeal.
We might not be able to do anything to stop the world from partial or even complete ecocide, yet perhaps we can still find a way to love and be kind to one another. After all, as Peak Everything reminds us, love is all that matters in the end.
Redmond is the editor-in-chief of Journey Into Cinema.