Without wishing to sound like one of those musty gentlemen with a long-standing subscription to Junior Cheerleaders, I must declare a fondness for the whole Sapphic teen sub-genre. As far as I’m concerned Heavenly Creatures was just heavenly and Thirteen turned it all the way up to eleven. And yet, this curious and intense material can go so easily and horribly wrong. It can go Barely Legal wrong.
Happily, no-one could accuse Pawel Pawlikowski’s similarly themed film, My Summer Of Love, of being exploitative. More kitchen sink than boudoir chic, this Brideshead Revisited re-jigged with Charlotte Church’s contemporaries follows the blossoming relationship between two West Yorkshire lasses. ‘Mona’ Lisa (Press) lives above a miserable pub with her bible-bashing, born again brother Phil (Considine). Now washed in the blood of the lamb or some such, Phil starts transforming their dingy inherited tavern into an alcohol and vice-free den of worship. Mona is naturally perturbed by these developments but her summer contrives to get worse when she gets dumped by her married boyfriend.
Understandably miffed with the men in her life, Mona takes up with Tasmin (Blunt), a pampered local princess recently ejected from public school. Despite the pony and the privileges, Tasmin has plenty of problems of her own, what with the dead anorexic sister and recently absconded mother. The adolescent pair start swapping tales of woe and pretentious musings only socially acceptable among under-eighteens and taxi-drivers – “Have you read Nietzsche?” and “God is dead”- bless. In no time the girls are experimenting with each other in a manner that does not require a Bunsen burner and appearing in the inevitable skinny dipping scene. The God-bothering brother is, suffice to say, less than thrilled.
The earthy lass meets haughty lady thing is, perhaps, a little too neat, but while no Virgin Suicides, My Summer Of Love cleverly maintains a delightfully dreamy feel almost despite its insistent naturalism and Mike Leigh styled workshop dialogue. Ryszard Lenczewski’s pretty cinematography is enchantingly complimented by Goldfrapp’s score, and the unassuming low-key performances are equally haunting.
But can someone please explain how two teenage girls get through an entire summer without texting each other? Was David Lynch involved in the screenplay?