7/10
Dark Romance
In a small town in West-Yorkshire a young girl named Mona lives above a former pub. She never knew her father, her mother’s dead and she’s increasingly estranged from her brother Phil, who was recently released from prison where he found God and who now devotes his life to praise and conversion. One day she meets Tamsin, a beautiful upper-class girl who spends the summer there. Tamsin feels abandoned by her parents, as her mother is mostly away and her father is cheating with his secretary. Both girls find an escape from their miserable lives with each other and fall in love, but while Mona thinks their love will last forever, Tamsin knows all too well the summer will soon end, and the cruel mindgames she plays with Mona might just turn against her.
My Summer of Love, written and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, is a beautiful and touching story of the love between two girls set against a bleak background. There is a permanent ominous mood (helped by a great score by Goldfrapp) which lingers throughout the film and promises things won’t end well. The romance is constantly broken up by intense (even creepy) scenes of Phil’s born-again christian group or Tamsin’s morbid fascination with her dead sister. When the girls promise each other they will kill the other if she ever leaves her, we wonder how seriously either of the girls take this.
Director Pawlikowski previously made a documentary about born-again christians in Yorkshire, and his documentary background shows in the film’s handheld shooting style and the cinema vérité-like scenes involving the born-again christian group. However, Pawlikowski is no social realist like Ken Loach and the social situations form mostly a backdrop to the girls’ relationship.
This is the second time I’ve seen My Summer of Love and I still like the movie as much as the first time. I particularly like its pacing and build-up, which is almost mysterious and spellbinding, and the performances from the three leads. Especially Natalie Press and Emily Blunt evoke great emotion as Mona and Tamsin. My Summer of Love is a moody, intriguing and sexy film that is definitely worth a watch.