Splendour in the grass: Blunt and Cross

Pawlikowski, the youngish director who caught the festival circuit's attention with 2000's Last Resort, here spends a languorous 83 minutes with two young girls in the Yorkshire countryside, which he shoots with a warm, sun-flared palette rather than the usual rainy greens and greys.

Mona (Nathalie Press) is a twitchy working-class teenager. She has just been dumped by her boyfriend, a married thick-as-bricks hooligan who shags like a jackhammer. Left in the lurch, she feels her inevitable future, married with kids in her drab Yorkshire valley, stabbing her like an awl; her parents have died and she lives with her brother, Phil, upstairs from the family pub. Phil (Paddy Considine), a former bad seed with brawling and a jail term in his recent past, has gotten the Jesus bug bad; he's turned the pub into a centre for born-again Christians and is endeavouring to erect a giant iron-and-wood cross on the hill above their town.

One day, out for a ride on her engineless moped, Mona meets Tamsin (Emily Blunt), a dark and heavy-lidded upper-class seductress out for a ride in the countryside astride her thoroughbred. Tamsin is left alone for the summer in her family's sprawling mansion, and soon the girls are inseparable - they loiter away the hours drawing on cigarettes, trying on Tamsin's dead sister's gowns, swimming in lush forest pools, and, of course, making out. As Phil battles his violent urges with Jesus and tries to draw Mona in, the girls braid their limbs and bony teenage mouths together until, in a fit of magic-mushroom-fuelled mystic awakening next to the campfire, they promise to be together forever. Tamsin, on one hand, wakes up in the harsh light of morning come-down sore and cranky, and the girls' summer world unravels quite quickly into unsubtle expressions of class differentiation.

In the paean of teenage-girl-love art movies, My Summer of Love fits in rather temperamentally. Pawlikowski, who is Polish, has a strange sidelong interest in British culture; you can almost see him trying to reinvent naturalism out of the hands of other British masters. His Mona is not slatternly and his Tamsin not shrill, and nothing is as raw as it would be under Leigh's or Frear's lenses. If anything, My Summer of Love resembles Lynne Ramsay's Morvern Callar in its wandering, hazy eroticism - and that's about all. For all the frenetic potential of his nubile stars, Pawlikowski seems more interested in exploring the space around and between them than the secrets of their sex. This isn't Thirteen, or even Heavenly Creatures.

The nicest thing of all about this beautiful, lyrical mood fugue is that Pawlikowski keeps everything vague and textured, trusting his actresses to play like shadows in the sun, more interesting as shifting shapes than sharp details.

My Summer of Love
 
 

		Write your comment on this article!

Summer of perverted love.     My Summer of Love promises to be haunting from the opening bars of Goldfrapp's music, all the time hinting at disturbing undertones. Mona is captivated by this beautiful and sophisticated girl, Tamsin, and their relationship quickly develops from casual acquaintance, to sexual attraction, to obsessive love, played out over a long hot summer when they have nothing to do and a lot of time to do it in. The scenes involving the girls have a quasi-crystalline, hallucinatory feel. Ini fact, the first time we see Tamsin, we see her through Mona's eyes, an upside-down image of a girl on a horse against a dazzling sky. This contrasts entirely with the almost documentary style used throughout the rest of the film; shaky, handheld camera work, blurred and out-of-focus shots of the evangelists holding meetings in the pub. Watching My Summer of Love, it's difficult to shake off the persistent feeling that everything is going to end in tears, if not worse. This might be because of the similarities it shres with Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures. Tamsin is very like the Kate Winslet character who appears sophisticated and brittle but are in fact emotionally vulnerable fantasists. In both films, the love between the two girls quickly turns obsessive, leading to violence when others try to keep them apart. My Summer of Love is a stunning, superbly acted film worth watching even with the inevitably sad ending. Natalie Press and Emma Blunt are totally believable as two young women looking to fill the gaps in their lives with excitement, and watching them fall for each other is enough to bring a smile to the face of even the most jaded.
Angelo Vernucci	{3 votes}	October 18th, 2005
Very much lost     the thing about first-love is that, when it ends, you feel all those melodramatic silly things that you always assumed to be cliche and over the top. 'my summer of love' shows why it's better to be out of the naive, first-time stage but reminds you how delightful and intoxicating that stage initially was. nathalie press (who plays mona) is such a find, she's hilariously weird and adorable, and every thoughtful glance of hers made me sort of breathless. she goes through so much in this film, and not once did i think of her as acting - i was entirely lost. pawel pawlikowski's film is visually spectacular - i'd heard that it was a beautifully shot and still found myself amazed by everything he captured. from the way he showed the girls lying in the tall grass, nothing visible but the smoke from their cigarettes, to the way that he filmed their kisses, this stands out as one of the most spectacularly put together films i have ever seen.
Rachel Rosenberg	{9 votes}	July 15th, 2005
Love On The Rocks.     Hmmm, I have to admit that Pawel Pawlikowsk sure knows how to conjure up a mood. This movie is really rather evocative in it`s depiction of the desperation that informs the extreme behavior of everyone involved. From Mona`s fatalistic resignation with regards to her mundane, downtrodden life to her subsequent "rebirth" care of Tasmin, who, let`s just say is an exceedingly delusional dreamer or as she calls herself - " a fantacist". And then there`s Mona`s bro, Phil with his incredibly desperate Jesus fixation. All of these characters are driven by the need to escape, to rise above their lot in life, but, sadly their catalysts for change are all too fleeting and their dreams irrevocably dashed. Consider this diamond in the rough of a film, a whimsical, sultry, bittersweet coming of age cautionary tale. Mind you, it`s arguably amongst the best of it`s ilk.
Glen Power-Williams	{68 votes}	June 30th, 2005
Listening to the gentle sound of angels melting in the sun.     The splendors of love doesn't ride upon the pure white back of magical unicorns. Instead, the splendors of love moves mysteriously along that spiraling eye of the eternal kingdom of shadows. because within this eternal kingdom, lies the unabashed truths that defines moments of love. walking the sidewalks and crossing the streets of sitcky, humid montreal, my thoughts slides easily along the sweetly annoited waters of arousals and sensuality. wondering whether the faces and passing bodies are perhaps enticed by the lure of an arousal that burns beyond weather forecasts and record temperatures. I am reminded of the kathleen turner, william hurt sleight film noir 'body heat'. a film that explored the pathos of love and eroticism that at the time of viewing many years ago, i found very well done. admittedly i haven't seen 'body heat' in a while but with my summer of love, aspects of 'body heat' seems apparent to my mind. we are creatures possessed by that dangerous allure. we fight that allure by overeating, overdrinking, and overwhining about trival meaningless concepts, like weather. But in my observations of this city moving through the sharp waters of high humidity and heat, the overwhelmed faces and bodies all seem to possess that underlying knowledge. all of the seasons are meant to stir this dangerous allure, where the senses are consumed not by how the mercury rises and falls, but how such a love abides and yearns within us all. My summer of love may appear to the overly heavy-minded to be some morality tale of when two different classes meet and the ensuing death and decay that occurs in such a tragic meeting of souls. i scoff at such readins as being nothing more than an obvious symbolic representation of their personal fears. for me, my summer of love represents an eternal summer that never dies. a summer when the gentle songs of angels melting underneath the heat of god's sun embraces the senses. revealing to the senses that love endures.
Gary Womac	{69 votes}	June 30th, 2005
ZZzzz     This was a lazy summer movie. An empty summer for two girls from two completely different worlds. Mona who lives above a pub and is missing an engine for her scooter, and Tamsin who lives in a country house and goes horse back riding for fun. The two girls become friends and then so so predictably lovers which was a shame. I didn't see why they couldn't have just remained friends. Why did sex even have to come into it? Anyway there's a startling scene where they both tell each other, "If you ever leave me I'll kill you." Which makes the end even more shocking when Tamsin flippantly says she lied about her dead sister and is going back to school. Mona in contrast has taken everything to heart and can't believe the betrayal. We feel her pain and disappointment in the drowning scene. An interesting film about innocence in love, hearts broken, lies and boredom. A summer movie with a difference and lovely Yorkshire scenery.
Laila Sadiq	{3 votes}	August 12th, 2005
What is love?     Love can come in many forms and in many unexpected ways. This movie explores that theme in a very unique way. This is a movie that at first seems like every guys fantasy. Two hot teenage girls, in love. But as you watch the movie, you start to see beneath the surface. Yes, it is a relationship with lust. But it is also built on love. And as much as the church would like to define love, love is something deeply personal. This movie will teach you that. This isn't fast paced, car chasing, American cinema. It is not a summer "popcorn" movie. But it will teach you about love...
Eric Wilson	{3 votes}	July 6th, 2005
It's a Lesbian Summer     This movie depicts a loving relationship between a poor girl who lost her mother to cancer and a rich girl who lost her sister to anorexia. Psychologically, they use eachother; one being the provider of wealth and goods and the other providing love and happineess. It's slow-motion until the end, when the deception is realized. It is a pessimistic movie and releases expected judgements on stereotyped characteristics. I give **
Alexandra Del Corpo	{5 votes}	July 5th, 2005
Honeys in Love...or not.     Well, I don't know what I was expecting, but this certainly kept that Gay marriage debate running through my mind, before and after the flick! Maybe that's why its been so sought after as a film, to spark debate, conversation, or at the very least the illusion of love. Because that's all Mona seems to really find. A beautiful, intoxicating, amusement parc ride sort of love, that she ends up being more than slightly dissapointed about having to get off of. Poor Mona. Poor Mona's brother. And poor audience who had to sit through the beginning of this slow moving picture, as I fortunately (in my view) arrived late, but still got the gist, of course. Falling in and out of love somehow seems a lot less complicated when you're so young & dumb.
Dawn Manhertz	{7 votes}	July 4th, 2005
Snooze fest....     The one good thing about this movie was getting out of the blustering heat and into air conditioning. Although the acting was very good, the story was very slow and too laid back. There was nothing to keep you on your toes and absolutely no excitement to be had. Was there a point to it all? Could be but I didn't stick around to find out......
Tracy Johnson	{6 votes}	July 3rd, 2005
Love, perhaps not best in the summer     The way this film is described: slow, lulling, evocative... it sounds like something quite apart from the summer blockbusters that surround it, dealing in whispers rather then explosions. Perhaps this is a movie for those heavy-lidded hot summer days, where you can barely bring yourself to move, and that's just what we've had! Take a pause for a moment between superheroes and spaceships to breathe deeply and feel the love.
Karen Sollazzo	{8 votes}	July 2nd, 2005
Seduction, obsession...     not your average teenage love story. This film had the feel of a long lazy summer. It progressed slowly and I saw many people exit the theatre before really giving it a chance. It is definitely a film that is left of centre and one that a large group of moviegoers won't appreciate. You really need to sit through the film to catch onto all of the eccentricities... complexities The scenery in the film was lovely, the acting was superb, the characters were quirky, yet likable.
Belynda Davidson	{17 votes}	July 2nd, 2005
Film Review 101/My Summer of Love     You won't find many people that are going to say that "My Summer of Love" sucks but a lot of critiques circle this idea in a none too subtle way. The simple truth is that this movie is somewhat less than impressive if you're judging it alongside the greats of the genre. There are definite slow stretches but the acting here is top notch. A lot of people that attended the pre-screening came to the coclusion that it was original but flat. The characters relate well to one another and the dialogue is snappy enough but where this movie falters is in the editing. This movie feels slugish and but I'd argue that this is because of the low-key approach to the story. The comparison to Lynne Ramsay's "Morvern Callar" is an apt one...except that movie was just slow and had little rooting value going for it on much of any level. Do not go watching this movie unless you know what you're walking into. This isn't about two chicks in love, this is far more than that but you might miss it if you nod off or don't pay attention to the acting.
Pedro Eggers	{14 votes}	July 1st, 2005
Summer Tryst     My Summer of Love is a highly engaging coming of age flick with a certain rapturous lilt. The love that evolves between Mona and Tamsin is as intense as it is transitory and yet, for the better part of the film one can't help but be totally transfixed by their burgeoning romance, and equally vexed by it's illusory nature, as it and everything else including Phil's faith, comes crashing down very, very hard. I can't help but think it's a shame that this charmingly sly little woe-be-gone flick will likely slip through the cracks in the wake of the plethora of big-buck summer blockbusters headed our way. Catch it while you can!
Mark St Pierre	{10 votes}	June 30th, 2005
My summer was almost ruinned by this movie     How I wish I could get those two hours of my life back. Starring out a window would probably be more entertaining than watching that dreadful movie. I had to combat the urge to get up and leave the theatre after approximately 20 minutes. I only stayed in hopes that it was going to be one of those really bad movie that somehow turn out to be good because of the ending, but no, nothing but a deception and waste of time.
Valerie Bergeron	{9 votes}	July 2nd, 2005

Write your comment! please follow these guidelines

Information requested in blue will remain confidential   [privacy policy] Please indicate your real first and last names.

First name :

Last name :

Your email :

Confirm your email :

Title of your comment (max. 150 characters)   Your comment (max. 2000 characters)  characters remaining       LIMIT PER PERSON : one comment per article per member. Thank you. Your comment will be read by our approval team and, if it is approved, will be posted on the website within 24 hours. It could also be published, along with your name, in the printed version of Hour magazine and on any of our partner websites. In order to present the highest quality of comments, Hour reserves the right to refuse certain submissions. Any plagiarism will entail the entire removal of the member’s profile. Hour is not responsible for the opinions expressed by the members.