Summerland

The focus of Summerland is not queer romance, that’s a flashback subplot. Instead, the focus of this fairly low stakes WW2-set English drama is Gemma Arterton going from being a total dick to children to being less of a dick to one specific child. Personally, I think the setting and focus of Summerland shows a shift in how lesbian relationships are being portrayed in cinema. For one thing, now lesbians have their own idealized romance during World War 2. For the other, I continue to champion films that have overt queer themes but having something other than queer romance be the centre of the film.

The lead character of the film is Alice Lamb (Gemma Arterton). Alice lives in a coastal UK town and very much does not like children. But whoops! She is given a London evacuee named Frank to act as guardian for. Alice very much does not want Frank there and is initially cold to him. However, Frank takes interest in Alice’s academic work about myths and folklore and eventually, she warms to him. In flashbacks, we see that the reason Alice has no partner is that she is a lesbian. She had a great love with Vera(Gugu Mbatha Raw), though Vera eventually left her due to Vera’s desire for a family, which Alice could not give her.

As previously mentioned, despite being a World War 2 drama, the stakes in this film are pretty low. Alice is fairly removed from the heat of the action as is the small town themselves. The war provides an amount of scarcity, some fear and an influx of children but that is about the extent in which lives are affected. This is by no means the first movie to have a lighter take on World War 2, especially for the sake of romance. There’s lots of straight romances that use the war as window dressing. So, have at it, lesbian movie. There’s a handful of pretty heavy lesbian World War 2 movies as well so it’s nice to have some variety in that genre.

This is a very 2020 take on 1940’s. Attitudes are highly progressive. Alice’s work is about deconstructing witches and female villains in folklore. The way she speaks about it is heavily reminiscent of third wave feminist dialogue about this subject. Alice’s queerness is likewise accepted. Admittedly, the only one she comes out to is Frank. But he’s totally fine with it which renders it a non-issue. There’s also exactly zero discussion in the film about the fact that Vera is black and this might affect her life in any way. While I generally enjoy these factors being matter of fact and the film not focusing on oppression, it sometimes does get a little much and makes it feel less believable as a period piece.

Summerland’s really solid cast helps gloss over some of the weaknesses in the story. Gemma Arterton effortlessly carries the movie and injects a level of drama into all her scenes. She is assisted by Lucas Bond, who plays Frank. Bond gives an incredibly solid performance for a young actor, making Frank feel properly young but never obnoxious. My only critique of the cast is that Gugu Mbatha-Raw and to a larger extent, Penelope Wilton went underutilized. These are two great actresses who I would have enjoyed seeing more screen time from.

To me, Summerland really does show the progress of lesbian representation in cinema. This is a feel-good film with broad appeal that happens to have a queer lead character. It’s not wholly relevant to the story but unabashedly there. Is Summerland a great movie? No. But it is a good movie with a budget, good cinematography and to my delighted surprise, a very happy ending.

Overall rating: 7.8/10

Other WLW films in similar genres