On the fourth day of summer, my Netflix sent to meee…okay, the “12 Days Of Christmas” song conceit is too hard to sustain, so I’m going to just let it go. Joe R is back with small-town girl-on-girl action and right-wing opprobrium in his write-up of My Summer Of Love.

Oh, those crazy, teenage, English lesbians. If you see two of them at the other end of the road, best to just turn around and walk the other way, lest you fall into their web of Dionysian mischief and amplified emotions. Nathalie Press and Emily Blunt play these Sapphic lasses who kind of stumble into each other mostly because there’s nothing else in town worth stumbling into. They become more and more fiercely attached to each other, while Press’s Jesus-freak brother preaches on around the edges.

This movie is easily the most tenuously connected to this theme of “summer movies,” and if it didn’t have the word “summer” in the title, there’s no way it would have made the cut. But it’s important to investigate a movie like this, just to see whether our definition of “summer movie” is elastic enough to encompass the occasional Brit indie about teen lesbians, sad-sack evangelical Christians, and the stifling boringness of small-town life. No surfing competitions, no beach volleyball, no bets to turn the ugly duckling at camp into a swan. There is a sweet summer romance, though. …Kind of.

Summer Timeline: Vaguely defined, but yeah, these two spitfire girls in Yorkshire have a summer to spend together and try to make it to September without their passionate, all-consuming teenage romance immolating them both.

Enviable Vacation Locale?: Truth be told, the whole movie’s kind of overexposed, which makes everything look unbearably bright and hot, kind of like it’s simulating the effects of heat stroke. Also, the town is lousy with born-again twelve-steppers, and no one wants to vacation with them.

Coming Of Age: Oh yeah. It’s a special time in a young girl’s life when she realizes she is capable of loving another woman so fiercely that she threatens to kill her, and herself, if they ever break up. The memories of that can be pretty indelible.

Unconventional Ways To Beat The Heat?: Tongue-kissing. Freaking out the local squares. Attempted drowning, which is probably the most effective way to cool off. Forever.

Best Summer Ever?: Only if your idea of a perfect summer looks an awful lot like Heavenly Creatures.

Worth The A/C?: Eh. Emily Blunt delivers a scorchingly good performance, which makes it worth the price of a rental alone. And Nathalie Press and Paddy Considine ain’t bad either. But if you’re looking for something to wallow in the chilly recycled air with, these may not be the dykes you’re looking for.

Overall Suitability As Summer Movie: B-minus

Share!