By Pawel Pawlikowski
BBC Films/Focus Features
Based on the novel by Helen Cross
87 mins.Another crazed lesbian flick?
The first time I saw My Summer of Love, on the big screen, I thought, here we go, another flick about lesbians gone crazy. Happily, I have rented the DVD and found greater redemption.Desire for Escape and Connection
My Summer of Love is about escape and desire for connection. Desire for love, for fulfillment. Escape from what is known, what is feared.Mona and Tamsin
The story focuses on Mona (Natalie Press) and Tamsin (Emily Blunt). Mona is essentially an orphan—she never knew her father, her mother died of cancer, and her only brother has escaped into religion as well as his other demons. She is looking for something or someone more than what she knows. Tamsin is a bad girl living in a bad world—seeking escape from her upper class rigidity and suffocating expectations. “I am a fantasist,” she tells Mona. Someone who enjoys playing a part as well as engaging in poetic license, even at the expense of others.Unhealthy Girls
Unfortunately, both girls are rather unhealthy. They are clearly intrigued by what the other is missing and from what the other is escaping. Their journey is bound for the perilous.
