My Summer of Love

You know what My Summer of Love was missing? What would’ve taken it from good to great? Murder.

My Summer of Love is about Mona, a girl who lives with her born-again Christian brother who’s just been released from prison. During the summer, Mona meets Tamsin, a rich girl who’s just been suspended from boarding school. The girls subsequently develop a close friendship which evolves into an obsessive romance.

There is a lot of good in this movie. Director Pawel Pawlikowski is exceptionally good at his job and fills the film with beautiful cinematography. The acting is also incredible. Emily Blunt and Natalie Press give astounding performances. They have excellent chemistry and their relationship dynamic is fascinating.

Where I feel let down by My Summer of Love is the ending. I just found this movie built up to a bit of an anti-climax, by which I mean nobody got murdered. I’ll admit, this is personal preference as I want both movies to end in a surprising and emotional murder. But such and ending would’ve actually fit in My Summer of Love. The first two acts of the movie build such drama that the way the film does end feels like a bit of a cop out. I wanted this movie to end with significantly more fireworks than it did.

For me, My Summer of Love is good but not great. The first two acts are really strong but I find it falls apart at the end. And I don’t need the movie to end in murder, I just needed it to offer a more dramatically resonant ending after all its successful buildup. The one we got had shades of something brilliant but didn’t quite get there. As such, my reaction upon finishing this movie was a resounding, “meh.”

Overall rating: 6.2/10

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