thePeanutBloggery

If you’re thinking about watching My Summer of Love for the lesbian sex scenes, you’d be better off watching an L Word rerun on Showtime. If you’re interested in a sparse, languorous film about complex and bizarre relationships, then tune in. Set in the 1980’s Yorkshire countryside, My Summer of Love is the story of working-class teen Mona (Nathalie Press) and wealthy teen Tamsin (Emily Blunt) who share…well the title covers it.

Having spent a considerable amount of time thinking about it while watching the film, I must mention that the ghost of Carrie – yes, Brian De Palma’s Carrie – seems to be lurking about this film. At first it’s the eerie resemblance Press bares to Cissy Spacek at that age: the same strawberry blond hair and freckles, the same eyes popping with painful innocence. Then Mona’s fanatically religious and reproachful brother Phil (Paddy Considine) evokes Carrie’s mother. Finally, the constant nervous distrust we hold for Tamsin is reminiscent of that of the Amy Irving character, only this time she doesn’t make her American hero boyfriend ask Carrie to the prom; she decides to take her herself.

The follow-up to director Pawel Pawlikowski’s debut film Last Resort, which earned him the BAFTA award for “Most Promising Newcomer in British Film,” My Summer of Love won seven best picture awards internationally. I find this surprising. While both Press and Blunt are quite good, they share little sexual chemistry, making their passionate confessions of love that lead to the dark conclusion doubtful. Ultimately, this shortcoming prevents the movie from being great, but sometimes when you’re spending Friday night in, you have to settle for not great.

My Summer of Love is available on HBO On Demand until January 7.