So this movie is basically about a dad and a tween daughter on vacation. It’s not quite told in a framing story, but there are periodic glimpses of the woman that the daughter grew into, and some of the scenes are viewed as through a camcorder (which we also see the daughter and the dad using at times), so there’s definitely a real sense that we’re with the woman in the present, viewing the past.

And so the very fact that we’re watching this from the future tells us that there’s something significant going on here, but it’s not really clear what. Because it seems like… honestly, just a pleasant vacation. Their hotel is a bit downscale, but they’re having fun, they have a great relationship together (and the acting of the two leads is excellent), and the Mediterranean setting is beautiful.

And yet… there’s a bit of a discordant note, every now and then. The dad clearly doesn’t have much money (they dine and dash a couple of times, which he frames up for her as a fun bit of mischief, but which seems plausibly non-optional), he’s divorced from her mom and doesn’t seem to have much in the way of romantic prospects, and there are occasional hints that he’s had — and maybe still has — a hard life.

And so what the movie is really about is coming to terms with your parents’ complicated adult life from your own perspective as an adult — the grown daughter looking back at this idyllic vacation, and seeing what her father mostly kept hidden from the younger version of her.

It’s a deeply subtle movie, but also deeply affecting.