Alexandra Daddario, Ashley Park, comedy, Daveed Diggs, drama, film festivals, Josh Gad, Kevin Pollak, movies, Nora Kirkpatrick, reviews, Tribeca Festival, Tribeca Film Festival
June 19, 2025
by Carla Hay
“A Tree Fell in the Woods”
Directed by Nora Kirkpatrick
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. state, the comedy/drama film “A Tree Fell in the Woods” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with one African American and one Asian person) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: Two married couples go on a getaway New Year’s Eve trip at a remote cabin in the woods and have their lives turned upside down when it’s revealed that two of the spouses are cheating with someone in the other couple.
Culture Audience: “A Tree in the Woods” will appeal primarily to fans of the movie’s headliners and overly talkative comedy/dramas about spousal relationships that don’t have anything that’s interesting to say.
Watching the painfully unfunny comedy/drama “A Tree Fell in the Woods” is like being stuck in a cabin with four annoying people who say cringeworthy things, which is the movie’s basic plot about four spouses dealing with infidelity. The cast members try too hard to be funny. It just doesn’t work because everything in the movie looks and sounds overly contrived and unnatural.
Written and directed by Nora Kirkpatrick, “A Tree Fell in the Woods” is her feature-film directorial debut. The movie had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. “A Tree Fell in the Woods” takes place during a few days of a New Year’s Eve getaway trip in an unnamed U.S. state. (The movie was actually filmed in Utah.)
It feels like the timeline in “A Tree Feel in the Woods” is much longer than a few days because “A Tree Fell in the Woods” quickly gets boring and repetitive with the mishandling of the movie’s one-joke premise: What would happen if two spouses found out that their respective spouses were cheating with the two other spouses while staying at the same cabin on a vacation trip, and they were snowed in for the rest of the trip?
That’s essentially the entire plot of this irritating drag of a movie, which would have been more tolerable if the dialogue had been witty and if the acting had been more natural. In “The Tree Fell in the Woods,” there are only five people who are seen on screen:
- Mitch Dilpen (played by Josh Gad), who’s in his mid-40s, is a nerdy and insecure business executive.
- Melanie Dilpen (played by Ashley Park), who’s in her mid-30s, is materialistic chef who’s written a best-selling cookbook called “Emotional Eating.”
- Josh (played by Daveed Diggs), who’s in his early 40s, is an egotistical photojournalist.
- Debs (played by Alexandra Daddario), who’s in her mid-to-late-30s, is a high-strung book editor who is an aspiring author.
- Gary (played by Kevin Pollak), who’s in his 60s, is the somewhat grouchy owner of the cabin.
Mitch and Melanie are married to each other. Josh and Debs are married to each other. Mitch and Debs have been platonic best friends for the past 15 years. However, Mitch has had an unrequited crush on Debs (whom he sometimes calls Debbie) for almost the entire time that they’ve known each other. You can bet that these feelings will come to the surface during the infidelity turmoil that happens during this trip.
In the beginning of the movie, it’s briefly mentioned that the four spouses are spending the New Year’s holiday with each other because they don’t want to be with their biological families. Mitch and Melanie are the first couple seen on screen, as they drive to the cabin in the woods. Mitch forgot to bring some turmeric that Melanie wanted for the trip, so he jokes that they should get divorced. Mitch and Melanie seem to have an easygoing banter with each other, but they don’t seem passionate about each other.
There’s no shortage of passion between Josh and Debs, who show public displays of affection, but they have some communication issues. Debs isn’t afraid to express her feelings about the relationship. However, she’s very insecure about finishing a novel that she’s been trying to write for the past several years and doesn’t like to talk about it with Josh.
Beneath the surface of both marriages are some deep-rooted problems that all of the spouses deal with in various degrees of discomfort or denial. Some of these probems have to do with how each spouse’s self-esteem is affected by their careers. Mitch doesn’t feel valued at his job and feels overshadowed by Melanie’s success. Melanie has become a semi-celebrity, which has inflated her ego. Josh is quick to take credit for other people’s work. Debs would rather be an author than a book editor.
On the first day of the trip, Mitch and Debs go for a walk in the snowy wooded area. They marvel at the sight of a deer nearby, right before a giant tree randomly falls down and narrowly misses falling on Mitch. Debs and Mitch are in shock and want to rush back to the cabin to tell their spouses what just happened.
As Debs and Mitch go toward the cabin, they’re in for an even bigger shock: Through an exposed window, they see Josh and Melanie having sex with each other. None of this is spoiler information because it happens within the first 15 minutes of the movie and serves as the catalyst for what happens next.
Mitch and Debs have very different reactions to discovering this betrayal. Debs immediately wants to angrily confront Josh and Melanie. Mitch begs Debs to delay this confrontation until they’ve had a chance to take some time to think about how to deal with this infidelity. Mitch tells Debs that he doesn’t want to ruin his marriage.
Debs agrees to Mitch’s request but says she’ll eventually have to have the confrontation, which happens the next morning. But just as the secret becomes out in the open, the four travelers find out that they are snowed in due to a blizzard, their cars can’t move, and no car service or taxi will be available to go to the cabin to take them away. They are all stuck with each other for the next few days.
Gary (who lives within walking distance of the cabin) is called to fix some utility problems in the cabin, but he’s reluctant to do it. Mitch eventually goes to meet Gary in person and discovers that Gary has a few bottles of very old bootleg liquor. Gary tells Mitch that the liquor very “dangerous” to drink. It’s easy to predict how this liquor will factor into the story.
The rest of “A Tree Fall in the Woods” is a series of angry, self-pitying and vapid conversations between the four spouses who have to confront the problems in their respective marriages and the problems within themselves. Josh and Melanie are mortified about their infidelity and express remorse. The movie shows whether or not Josh and Melanie want to stay in their respective marriages.
Mitch has conflicting feelings about ending his marriage to Melanie, but he’s sure that Debs should end her marriage to Josh. Here’s an example of the terrible dialogue in the movie when Mitch tries to persuade Debs to break up with Josh: “He’s ketamine. You’re cocaine. He’s a rusty sword. You’re an atomic bomb. You’re a real-live person. He’s an asshole.”
After a while, these phony-sounding conversations and some of the shenanigans that ensue become tedious to watch. “A Tree Fell in the Woods” might have been better as a short film. But it still wouldn’t erase the irredeemable problem of the movie being about obnoxious people who say and do a lot of stupid things.