My Summer of Love

Mona (Natalie Press), a working-class girl in a rural English village, meets Tamsin (Emily Blunt), a rich girl spending the summer holiday at her parents’ nearby manor. In time, their growing infatuation alarms Mona’s hyper-religious ex-con brother (Paddy Considine). Director Pawel Pawlikowski (who co-wrote, with Michael Wynne, this adaptation of Helen Cross’ novel) washes the film in the kind of sultry summer glow that has suffused high-tone pseudo-tragic date movies ever since Elvira Madigan (1967). He draws nicely unselfconscious performances from his photogenic young stars, caressing them with his camera as they gambol through meadow and brook. There’s a languidly sinister undertone to it all, but it dissipates in anticlimax and leaves the audience hanging in is-that-all-there-is anticipation.