My Summer of Love is based on the 1985 novel by Helen Cross. Set in rural Yorkshire, England, it tells the story of two young girls who meet early one summer, become friends, and then lovers. Mona (Nathalie Press) is a shy, plain, working-class girl who lives above a pub owned by her older brother, Phil (Paddy Considine), an ex-con who is her only remaining family. Tamsin (Emily Blunt), pretty and confident, is the daughter of a wealthy family living in the hills above the town. Mona doesn’t go to school, while Tamsin has been sent home for being a bad influence.

Both girls are vulnerable, and each suffers from a family crisis. Tamsin is recovering from the loss of her beautiful, older sister to anorexia, and at the same time dealing with her father’s (Paul Antony-Barber) infidelity while her mother (Lynette Edwards) is away. Mona never knew her father, and her mother has died of cancer. Phil, now a born-again Christian, has converted the pub, against Mona’s wishes, into a spiritual center for other charismatics. Since his conversion, she feels she no longer knows or even likes him. The girls’ friendship begins out of boredom and curiosity, and the sharing of these intimacies leads to a physical relationship.

My problem with My Summer of Love is that director Pawel Pawlikowski was not able to bring me in -- I never felt a strong liking for either girl, thus it was hard to care about what happens to them. The story is told as a series of vignettes, some beautifully filmed, others amateurish. There are many scenes of the girls being girls: trying on each other’s clothes, goofing around and singing, skinny-dipping and sunbathing. But there are never any surprises, and the denouement is predictable.

But Pawlikowski has tried to make more than just another coming-of-age film. Though the scenes of the girls kissing may titillate young males and the occasional immature 45-year-old film critic, My Summer of Love is less about sexual awakening than about a brother’s search for happiness through Christian rebirth, and the contrast between a working-class girl and her wealthy friend.

• Go Back