Three Peaks (2017)

Story guru Matt Bird says your story is not about your hero's life; it's about your hero's problem. The first half of Three Peaks comes close to breaking this rule.

A mother, her son, and her new boyfriend vacation at a cabin in the mountains. We watch them live their lives for several days---cooking, sleeping, playing music---all made awkward by the son's unresolved resentment over his father's absence.  The film seems to be showing us what life is like in a new family.

The boyfriend does his best to include the son in manly activities such as cutting firewood and hiking to the peaks.  The son starts to threaten the boyfriend. This is where the film starts being a story. The boyfriend (hero) now has a problem. ​Still, what can a boy do against a grown man?

Quite a bit, it turns out, when that man feels protective toward the boy for the sake of his girlfriend, the mother, and when they hike to the top of a mountain and the fog rolls in. Trapped in a dangerous situation, the boy now has all the advantages.

The final third of the movie plays like a Jack London story directed by Alfred Hitchcock.