My Summer Of Love Details

This loose adaptation of Helen Cross's Yorkshire-set novel makes several astute contrasts between surface illusion and bitter reality. Ryszard Lenczewski's cinematography perfectly captures a balmy atmosphere of rural contentment, as working-class teenager Natalie Press falls for well-heeled Emily Blunt. The intensity of their relationship soon threatens to overwhelm them, and seems as fragile as Paddy Considine's fervent, prison-inspired dalliance with born-again Christianity. The naive optimism of the central characters is sensitively conveyed, but the assault on religion is heavy-handed, the dialogue occasionally ponderous and the plot resolution too melodramatic. Notwithstanding, co-writer/director Pawel Pawlikowski remains one of British cinema's brightest hopes.

Despite an unconvincing ending, an insightful, bittersweet story of a brief love that captures the indolent delights of a hot spell and also illumines class attitudes.