My Summer of Love (R, 2005)

In MY SUMMER OF LOVE, Mona (Natalie Press), feeling confined by the Yorkshire village where she's lived all her life. Everything changes when she meets lovely, upper class Tamsin (Emily Blunt). The girls hit it off and, as Tamsin's parents are away, they begin to spend their days in the family's luxurious grand mansion and grounds. Working class Mona enjoys the, fineries, but her brother Phil (Paddy Considine) – just released from prison -- worries that she's away from home and his new found religious interests strains the siblings' relationship. The girls' romance builds slowly. They share secrets, as when Tamsin recalls her dead sister's struggle with anorexia and takes up Mona's defense over her ex-lover, a married man (Dean Andrews), with whom she shared clandestine, joyless, backseat sex before her dumped her. Eventually, Phil's efforts to control Mona drive her to make a choice, between her known past and the unknowable Tamsin.

An intricate study of high school-aged rebellion and yearning, My Summer of Love makes a familiar plot seem new. In part this is because it takes the view of young Mona, superbly portrayed by Natalie Press. The girls' budding romance evolves in an alternately fluid and jaunty process as they explore one another and their own feelings, partly a function of cinematographer Ryszard Lenczewski's adept handheld camerawork, and partly of Pawlikowski's experience as a documentary maker.

Each member of this threesome is obsessive in his or her own way; when Phil literally locks Mona in her bedroom in an effort to "save" her, she begins drawing Tamsin's portrait on her wall. This image -- colored chalk on the roughhewn surface -- showcases Tamsin's eye as Mona perceives and needs it, a means to see herself reflected.

Studio: Focus Features
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Cast: Emily Blunt, Natalie Press, Paddy Considine
Genre: Drama
Run time: 86 minutes
Theatrical release: June 17, 2005
DVD release: October 11, 2005
MPAA Rating: R
MPAA explanation: sexuality, language and some drug use