Dean 2017

Dean’s Brooklyn life is upended as he tries to pick up the pieces after his mother’s death. He shares a house with his father, Robert, who is struggling to adjust to life on his own. When Dean’s ex-fiancée Michelle returns the engagement ring, he refuses to accept the “un-proposal,” setting the emotional tone for a man trying to navigate loss, responsibility, and a life that feels unsettled.

Weddings, rings, and awkward moments thread through Dean’s world. At his best friend Brett’s wedding, the role of best man becomes tangled in tension as Dean’s ex distracts him and a fragile moment with the ring slips away. The reception only deepens the discomfort when Kevin, the groom, interrupts Dean’s speech in a way that underscores the fragility of Dean’s sense of belonging and purpose.

Family dynamics push Dean toward a major life pivot. The morning after the wedding, Robert surprises everyone by announcing he plans to sell the house. To delay the move, Dean fabricates a trip to Los Angeles to meet with an advertising agency that wants to use his drawings. Behind the scenes, Robert has already brought in realtors, Carol and Patrick, whom he mistakenly assumes are married. The awkward discovery that Carol is not simply a married woman but someone with her own life adds another layer of complexity to the father–son relationship, especially when Robert sees Carol’s online dating profile and uses the flirtation as a way to cope.

Dean’s creative ambitions meet the real world’s friction. The advertising agency rejects his work for a deodorant campaign, dampening his creative momentum. Feeling stifled, Dean leaves the meeting and reconnects with friends Becca and Eric in Los Angeles, where a party introduces him to Nicky. He pursues a connection with her in earnest, even trying to overcome Jill’s initial barrier to his approach, handing over his number in a quaint, twentieth-century style notebook note that becomes a small symbol of his earnest, if awkward, charm.

A spark on the coast becomes a longer journey. As Dean boards a flight, a text from Nicky invites him to the beach, prompting him to disembark and chase the burgeoning relationship. The two share a dinner and an affectionate kiss that night, and the possibility of something real begins to feel within reach. Yet a later meetup with Nicky and Jill at an art gallery stalls, and Nicky reveals she and Jill are headed to San Francisco. Dean asks if he and Eric can tag along, only for Eric to be pulled away at the last moment by a cat emergency that forces him to fly home.

Meanwhile, Robert’s own romantic life runs parallel in New York. Carol, whom Robert has been seeing, invites him to her apartment for coffee after a theatre outing, but he declines, claiming he is “still married.” This moment reveals a lingering tension around his own commitment and the complexities of dating while dealing with past choices.

The emotional center of the story shifts to Nicky’s truth and Dean’s vulnerability. Nicky spends the night with Dean, and he confesses that he thinks he’s fallen in love with her, while also acknowledging the pain of his failed engagement and the loss of his mother. The next morning, Nicky leaves a note at the front desk written in a twentieth-century style, apologizing for not sharing that she is separated from her current husband.

A quiet, hopeful arc closes the tale. Dean returns to New York, completes his book, and begins to repair the rift with his father. Robert moves into a city apartment, signaling a new chapter for both men. Dean sends a signed copy of his book to Eric, sharing what he has learned about loss and healing, and the two men’s worlds slowly converge. On the street, Robert glimpses Carol again, and they find a way to walk forward together, suggesting that connection and family can endure even as lives shift.

In the end, the film leaves Dean navigating grief, love, and reconciliation with a gentler sense of possibility. The journey underscored by quiet acts of honesty, small gestures of care, and the persistence of forging ahead after being broken open by loss.