My Summer of Love

That rare thing—an semi-gothic English romance about the heat of the Yorkshire summer. A sexy English film that captures the languidity of teenage girls at the moment between adolescence and adulthood. Mona (Natalie Press)—real name Lisa, but so-called by her brother in her childhood because of her penchant for whinging—lives above The Swan, a pub that no longer sells alcohol, with her brother, fresh out of prison and born-again into the love of Jesus. Tamsin (Emily Blunt) is home for the summer after being expelled from school for being “a bad influence, apparently.” Tamsin comes upon Mona lying in the grass. Tamsin is on horseback, while Mona has been coasting on a motorbike with no engine. The class difference between the two is etched from the start. And this class difference contributes to the impression that from the beginning of their relationship, Tamsin is in control of the trajectory. Mona explains her nickname; Tamsin says she’s studied the original. Tamsin feeds Mona the gems from the education that comes with her wealthy background: Nietzche’s “God is dead”, a performance of Saint-Saens the swan. She mills around with a glass of wine, staring imperiously at Mona. As their relationship blossoms into the love of the title, it is Tamsin who maps out the desire, and provides Mona an escape from the increasingly bleak situation at the born again Swan.

The gothic aspects come from the contrasting, and yet equally claustrophobic, atmosphere of the houses these girls come from. Tamsin’s grand estate is heavy with the absence of Tamsin’s family: the house is old, elegant, huge. Tamsin tells Mona to stick with her—as though the house is too vast, as if once separated they may not find their way back to each other. The Swan is barren, tiny. Our first glimpse is of Mona drawing a portrait on her wall, and then furiously drawing a frame in red texta. The pub is full of the hushed prayers of the evangelical born again Christians. Paddy Considine gives a wonderful performance as Mona’s brother, trying to find an alternative to his violent past in religion.

The film is slippery: it is funny, it is romantic and steamy, it is dark and has elements of the thriller. It doesn’t fit any one genre, and some viewers will no doubt find this frustrating. It does leave the focus a little soft a times: none of the possible trajectories is fully explored. At the same time the emotional intensity and melodrama in many ways echoes the way the world appears to the teenage lover: all possibilities, comedic and tragic in equal measure, are heightened. The performances are the revelation, and this film offers the viewers an experience that bears revisiting.