My Summer of Love – UK – Dir Pawel Pawlikowski – 3/5
(This is the review I did when I saw the film at the 2005 Sydney Film Festival.)

A small film to open the SFF. Hasn't this been done better in Heavenly Creatures? Nathalie Press impresses as Mona, but the jury is out on Emily Blunt. Neither is a Samantha Morton or Emily Watson, & the film isn't Morvern Callar.

It could have gone in any one of several directions, but doesn't. It hasn't got a strong narrative, but is content to dwell on the girls (and their clothes, and their bodies). Probably this film would mean more to the English - last rose of summer & all that.

Still, it is visually stunning, with fabulous framing but with some distracting handheld camerawork. For me, the most interesting aspect of the film was its treatment of Born-again Christians - critical but sympathetic. Here Paddy Constantine gives very strong support. The ending will keep you thinking for quite a while.