My Summer of Love (2005)

90% of critics liked it
(87 reviews)
67% of users liked it
(10,226 ratings)

Two young women find love under difficult circumstances in this distinctive drama. Mona (Natalie Press) is a 16-year-old girl living in a small English town. There has never been much to do the neighborhood, and there's even less going on now that her older brother, Phil (Paddy Considine), who runs… More Two young women find love under difficult circumstances in this distinctive drama. Mona (Natalie Press) is a 16-year-old girl living in a small English town. There has never been much to do the neighborhood, and there's even less going on now that her older brother, Phil (Paddy Considine), who runs the local pub, has become a fanatical born-again Christian and is turning the tavern into a hall for prayer meetings. Tamsin (Emily Blunt) is another teenage girl who lives nearby; her mother is a successful actress who is usually away on projects, and her businessman father is too busy with his mistress to pay his daughter much attention. When Mona and Tamsin meet, they fall instantly in love and begin an erotic involvement. However, they soon discover that it isn't easy to keep their budding romance a secret in such a small town. My Summer of Love was enthusiastically received in its premiere screenings at the 2004 Edinburgh Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 27 min.
Directed By: Pawel Pawlikowski
Written By: Michael Wynne, Pawel Pawlikowski
Genres: Drama, Romance

In Theaters: Jun 17, 2004 Wide
On DVD: Oct 4, 2005
Studio: Focus Features

Critic Reviews

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
A perfectly diverting, perfectly forgettable summer fling.
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
Turns out to be a triumph of unexpectedness in its slimmed-down story of two teenage girls, one middle-to-lower-class, and the other upper-class.
James Berardinelli, ReelViews
My Summer of Love is one of those promising little gems that comes along and gets lost in the hype generated by Hollywood's flood of blockbusters.
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper
Very good performances ...
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
Pawlikowski doesn't spend much time explaining his characters or telling us why they do what they do, and that's exactly why they remain so compelling.
Jennie Punter, Globe and Mail
It is a truly refreshing grown-up big-screen film.
Cynthia Fuchs, Common Sense Media
Mature coming of age story is for older teens and adults only.
Robert Davis, Paste Magazine
The film reaches a point of high drama, for sure, but when Edith Piaf's voice rises over the final minutes, the gothic climax curls into a wicked grin.
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
...there's little doubt that the film is occasionally just a little too uneventful for its own good.
Robert W. Butler, Kansas City Star
Pawlikowski does such a great job of establishing a sense of youthful carelessness that we're sucked into Mona's summer adventure.
John Beifuss, Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
A movie you seem to watch through translucent eyelids...
Brian Gibson, Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)
Torrid eroticism tinged by a sense of menace . . . circles around its complex, conflicted characters before plunging into their dark feelings and hidden half-truths.
David N. Butterworth, rec.arts.movies.reviews
Pawel Pawlikowski's open and poetic new film proves without a shadow of a doubt that his stunning Last Resort from 2000 was no fluke.

Read all 13 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Film C

Well, im not 100% sure as to why this is a really liked movie, i didn't think there was very much too it, a compulsive liar, another one who is a bit rebellious fall in love, small town so cant keep it a secret so it doesnt last hence the title! I mean theres not a lot going on… More
Well, im not 100% sure as to why this is a really liked movie, i didn't think there was very much too it, a compulsive liar, another one who is a bit rebellious fall in love, small town so cant keep it a secret so it doesnt last hence the title! I mean theres not a lot going on so i dont know why its such a big hit! Emily Blunt is great but i think her talents are wasted in this pointless gay interest drama!
Jim H

Alienated by her brother's conversion to born-again Christianity, a young woman finds companionship and love with an equally abandoned upper class girl. The highlights of this film are the performances by the leads, Natalie Press, the always exceptional Emily Blunt, and the… More
Alienated by her brother's conversion to born-again Christianity, a young woman finds companionship and love with an equally abandoned upper class girl. The highlights of this film are the performances by the leads, Natalie Press, the always exceptional Emily Blunt, and the woefully under-used Paddy Constantine. Each actor is believable and gives a compelling performance. Though I'm partial to Constantine, who had the greatest challenge in making what could have been farcical real, Blunt and Press are both alluring and tortured. I did have problems with the film's story and direction. The story is so lackadaisical and slowly built that whatever energy the actors and the story's inherit conflict could engender was dissipated. Also, the camera randomly jump-zoomed on certain actors at rare times. I didn't understand the motivation for it -- it seemed like a child had pressed a button he shouldn't have. Overall, when the film held my attention, it was because of the actors' work, but had the director picked up the pace, I think My Summer of Love would have been an excellent film.
Lewis C

My Summer of Love is comparable to Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures in some ways. Both movies are about two unhappy, bored teenage girls (played here by Emily Blunt and Natalie Press) from wildly different backgrounds who meet and quickly form an intense bond because of their… More
My Summer of Love is comparable to Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures in some ways. Both movies are about two unhappy, bored teenage girls (played here by Emily Blunt and Natalie Press) from wildly different backgrounds who meet and quickly form an intense bond because of their sense of humor and intelligence, and their lack of similarity to those around them. And also like Heavenly Creatures, the threat of the two girls being separated spurs some rather dark consequences for several people. I liked My Summer of Love, but it was a fair distance from perfect. The camera work was needlessly busy and distracting, and it took me the majority of the movie to get used to it. And it's a little slow at times. It also seemed like the story was a little muddled. Ambiguous or open-ended stories are fine, but Summer of Love veered towards frustration once or twice. The best parts of the movie were Emily Blunt, Natalie Press, and Paddy Considine. They're really the only main characters, and each of them does an excellent job portraying flawed people.
Lorenzo v

"Apparently I'm a bad influence on people." In the Yorkshire countryside, working-class tomboy Mona (Press) meets the exotic, pampered Tasmin (Blunt). Over the summer season, the two young women discover they have much to teach one another, and much… More
"Apparently I'm a bad influence on people." In the Yorkshire countryside, working-class tomboy Mona (Press) meets the exotic, pampered Tasmin (Blunt). Over the summer season, the two young women discover they have much to teach one another, and much to explore together. <center>REVIEW</center> Polish-born director Pawel Pawlikowski's second fiction feature, freely adapted by the director and Michael Wynne from a novel by Helen Cross, is a disarming story of two young women of very disparate backgrounds colliding into a risky, beguiling affair. At the beginning of the titular summer in a Yorkshire town, Mona (Natalie Press) hasn't a lot to look forward to: Her partner in carnal relations has thrown her off, and her brother (the increasingly reliable Paddy Considine) has come out of prison born-again; we first see him emptying liquor bottles in the pub he and Mona inherited from their parents, the better to convert the spot into a Christian meeting place. One day, toddling about on her engineless scooter, the bright-eyed blond meets the almost Vichy Tamsin (Emily Blunt), whose fairy-tale appeal is enhanced by the fact that she lives in a veritable castle, complete with neglectful parents. The two become passionate friends, then more. Beautifully acted by the two leads and filled with astonishingly enacted and acutely observed instances of the kind of magic that happens when two people get lost in each other (even when what they're getting lost in isn't the "real" person), this is as wonderfully realized an observation of female affinity as 1999's great The Dreamlife of Angels.
Sophie B

I really loved the story of this, it was interesting and very well done. There were a lot of twists and turns which were very difficult to predict. The characters were well developed and interesting to watch. It was obvious that Tamsin was a bit untrustworthy and she was very good… More
I really loved the story of this, it was interesting and very well done. There were a lot of twists and turns which were very difficult to predict. The characters were well developed and interesting to watch. It was obvious that Tamsin was a bit untrustworthy and she was very good with getting people on her side and getting people to like her. Even at the end, I didn't want to believe that she did anything wrong. That was down to Blunts great performance and the script. I did feel very sorry for Mona very much, but at the end I was glad to see her walk away and become independant as she had been played very badly. I did think she'd kill Tamsin but thankfully she thought better of it. Amazing setting!
Nani V

It's a summer shared between two teenage girls from different sides of the track. Mona, the main character lives in a pub with her brother who has closed it down and made it a place of worship. One day, she meets Tamsin, a rich girl who is home for the summer from private school.… More
It's a summer shared between two teenage girls from different sides of the track. Mona, the main character lives in a pub with her brother who has closed it down and made it a place of worship. One day, she meets Tamsin, a rich girl who is home for the summer from private school. They spend just about every moment together and become so involved with one another that they start up an intimate relationship. The ending turns out a bit twisted, which made the film.
Anthony L

A very sweet and gentle film with plenty to think about and plenty to look at. Great cast and beautifully shot!
Jennifer X

Emily Blunt is certainly an impressive little actress, and this sumptuous film provides a nice backdrop to showcase her talent. I adore the theme's ambiguity and the constant haze of alcohol, smoke, and drugs. Simplicity like this makes me happy.
Craig S

Directed by: Pawel Pawlikowski. Starring: Emily Blunt, Nathalie Press, Paddy Considine, Dean Andrews. Tamsin: 'If you leave me, I'll kill you.' Mona: 'If you leave me, I'll kill… More
Directed by: Pawel Pawlikowski. Starring: Emily Blunt, Nathalie Press, Paddy Considine, Dean Andrews. Tamsin: 'If you leave me, I'll kill you.' Mona: 'If you leave me, I'll kill you....and then I'll kill myself.' Its a film I have come to admire, the direction by Pawel Pawlikowski is one highlights of the film in which it is done with such a natural grace, you notice for the first 10 minutes of film how simple it all appears, like its shot on a very cheap camera, but you lose yourself in the movie after that and it is somehow hypnotic. It also delivers extraordinary performances from its leads that you forget how independent the film really is and are so absorbed by the quality of the script, how charming and romantic and can be and how silently powerful in moments it is. Only downside of the film is its sudden ending, it does answer all questions and doesn't leave you in the dark, but you do expect something a little more then the way it suddenly ended. A charming, hypnotic film that is never trashy or graphic, but silently powerful and charming.
Lady D

Good performances all round, particularly from Natalie Press, about a relationship between two girls who share the summer together and the differences between them. VERDICT: A really enjoyable film
Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]"My Summer of Love" starts out in the English countryside where Mona, nee Lisa(Natalie Press) spends most of the day roaming on her incomplete cycle. Her brother, Phil(Paddy Considine) was in prison for a variety of infractions. Inside he found God in… More
[font=Century Gothic]"My Summer of Love" starts out in the English countryside where Mona, nee Lisa(Natalie Press) spends most of the day roaming on her incomplete cycle. Her brother, Phil(Paddy Considine) was in prison for a variety of infractions. Inside he found God in a rather large way and may now be overdoing it. He has also turned the family pub, The Swan, into a worship hall. One day, Mona runs into Tamsin(Emily Blunt), who is doing her roaming on a white horse. Tamsin is from an upper class family who live in a dusty old mansion. She has also been tossed out of her school and is making a perfect waste out of her first class education. Tamsin's father is off having relations with his secretary; her mother's touring on the road and Tamsin is still troubled by the death of her older sister, Sadie. Mona and Tamsin become fast friends.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"My Summer of Love" is a simple story shot in a very naturalistic style, sometimes with handheld cameras. The performances are all fine, especially Paddy Considine. The movie is scored to wonderful music. The movie while having something to say about class structure, has much more to say about our true natures.[/font]
Daisy M

<a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i32.tinypic.com/27yrew0.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>for sexuality and language. My Summer of Love was a pretty simple… More
<a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i32.tinypic.com/27yrew0.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>for sexuality and language. My Summer of Love was a pretty simple story of two dysfunctional girls who met by chance and become very friendly each other, they fell in love through the summer vacation and had some fun together. These roles were brought to life by Emily Blunt and Nathalie Press. The movie was shot in the beautiful Yorkshire and told us the story of growing pains and confused teenager feelings. Paddy Considine role was great, a reborn Christian, and he did a great job in playing that role.
Timothy O

This gets five stars for one main reason. Emily is naked and does lezzy stuff, lol. Sue me. I love her.
Marcus W

No no no no and no. Great potential for a love story set against a hard religious backdrop, and what happens? It gets miserable, downbeat and ends crappily. The stars are all really good but the film seems determined not to get too happy and so every time there's a chance a… More
No no no no and no. Great potential for a love story set against a hard religious backdrop, and what happens? It gets miserable, downbeat and ends crappily. The stars are all really good but the film seems determined not to get too happy and so every time there's a chance a character might have a reason to be cheerful along comes something to knock them back down again.
Leo L

An interesting movie. Good story plot that follows two young women who explore and experiment together. It's quite interesting to see Emily Blunt in a role such as this movie. Quite fascinating!
Sarah B

What did it all mean? The star is for the bravery and Paddy Considine.
Ina S

Beautifully shot, intense coming-of-age film. The actresses surely have a huge career ahead of them, the intensity of their acting and especially their chemistry was amazing. Could be timed ever so slightly better, but beautiful, thrilling and well-deserving of the prizes it got.