A Tree Fell In The Woods (2025) ‘Tribeca’ Movie Review: Alexandra Daddario and Ashley Park Bring Some Spark to This Unfocused Couple-Vacation Drama

At the movies, a getaway to a cabin in the woods always spells disaster. Nothing good comes of it. It’s either something grotesquely violent or a wrenchingly grim vision that exposes carefully constructed facades. In such a space, with isolation hovering intensely, it becomes impossible to rescue shards of hope and joy if there’s not authenticity in place. The remote cabin is primed as a unique space that unleashes long-caged demons and gives utterance to hidden scars. There can be no escape. Nora Kirkpatrick’s “A Tree Fell In The Woods” attunes itself to the complications and conundrums that may sprout in such a space.

She weaves a tale of couples, revealing tensions simmering underneath loyalty and mutual trust that had earlier seemed rock-solid, immutable. Gradually, the frays show when individuals are put in a situation and forced to reckon with its ugly but imperative consequences. Should they remain stuck in a deluded happiness, or break free and pursue the inconvenient but ultimately healing path? It’s the central dilemma that binds the film. Characters must confront the inevitable, harder questions of their lives and marriages. To run away from them is to accept further damage in their lives and deeper devastation. Not admitting only buys off some time. What will come cannot be halted, or a lie is lived for years, the agony of having witnessed the truth twisting within.

The film peers into uncomfortable realisations that grow in the wake of a terrible discovery. Debs (Alexandra Daddario) and Mitch (Josh Gad) have been best friends for fifteen years. They’ve weathered the brunt of bad decisions and joyous times together. She hasn’t cracked a viable writing career yet, getting by on being an editor. Mitch is a thriving financier.

They have taken a holiday with their spouses and are putting up at a cabin in the woods. They discover their partners are making out with each other. Infuriated, Debs immediately wants to confront her husband, Josh (Daveed Diggs), but Mitch requests that she refrain. He wants to stick it out and be still with his wife, Melanie (Ashley Park). He’s scared of losing her. He tells her it’s just a fling, and Debs and he should just overlook it. But she can’t put it away once the four are together.

For a while, Debs has been fluctuating while viewing her marriage to Josh. Is she even happy? The incident now only accentuates her recurring thoughts that her marriage may be on the rocks, that she’s just barely holding on. Melanie puts up a harmless front, explaining right away once it seems the lying is getting too unbearable. She’s the kind of person who must be told and guided to pursue their own desires. There’s such an effortless honesty shining through Ashley Park’s performance.

She’s hilarious and wrenching by turns, evoking a woman who finds herself overwhelmed when she actually has to reconcile with her deeper longing, the true nature of her feelings. Eventually, Debs and Mitch want to get away from the cabin, but it snows so heavily that the four are holed up together for the night. The forced time in proximity becomes a conduit for the couple’s grievances and genuine problems to come to the surface.

In blustering, showboating fashion, Josh Gad rallies for his character’s righteous hurt. He is over-committed, flaps around, and it does get tiresome to watch him. But there is a seam of depth in a few well-realised moments between him and Daddario. As best friends who don’t share the same gender, the two are teased with cheeky scraps on playing with assumptions they have had to battle. “A Tree Fell In The Woods” mines their intimacy with unfussy understanding, though I’m not sure if stretching it in a section later brings unexpected variation in subversion or strides along to stereotype. Is it even breaching the long-held suppositions or just an act of pandering?

“A Tree Fell In The Woods” circles domestic resentments and revelations vis-a-vis tightened situations. It’s about relationships, recognising when one is exerting an equation even when love and more sincere emotions have vanished. How long can one play-act, pretend to be in love when the truth is tougher? The film fleshes out some startlingly probing moments of candour, and the acting keeps it sailing. But there are some indulgences with a substance trip. It detracts from the more piercingly honest moments in the film, diminishing their power.

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A Tree Fell In The Woods (2025) Movie Links: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Wikipedia, Letterboxd
A Tree Fell In The Woods (2025) Movie Cast: Alexandra Daddario, Daveed Diggs, Josh Gad, Ashley Park
A Tree Fell In The Woods (2025) Movie Runtime: 1h 36m, Genre: Comedy/Drama

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