Summerland (Gemma Arterton)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m not sure where I first heard of the film ’Summerland’. Perhaps it was recommended to me by Amazon. I bought it in the 'marketplace' a couple of months ago; last night we decided to watch it.

Gemma Arterton is Alice, the main character, a quirky, bad-tempered academic writer who lives in a cottage by herself, not mixing with any of the locals. It’s set during World War II but she ignores committees, blackouts and anything else that doesn’t interest her. She’s passionate about disproving folklore and myths by using science to explain unusual phenomena.

Unfortunately the local folk think she’s a witch - and she does nothing to dispel this idea. We see her in early scenes being abrupt, rude and tactless without, apparently, caring. And yet even then there’s a vulnerability in her eyes. She is lonely, though she refuses to admit it.

To Alice’s horror, a young refugee - an eleven-year-old boy called Frank (Lucas Bond) - is billetted with her. She has not offered her house, and hasn’t seen any correspondence relating to this - but then her mailbox is regularly filled with rubbish by local children. She does all she can to turn him away, but eventually, reluctantly, accepts him for a week, at most. She refuses to look after him, but he’s an intelligent outgoing child and gradually he wears down her defences…

There are some flashbacks to scenes a couple of decades earlier, when Alice was a student and involved in an unexpected love affair. We only discover, gradually, how this developed and how it ended; it’s perhaps related to her rejection of society norms and determination to stay secluded twenty years later.

The pace of the film is excellent, the acting believable, and the growing friendship between Alice and Frank is quite moving in places. The background of the war means that some tragedies are inevitable; we also see some of the negative prejudices against Alice that Frank experiences when he joins the local school.

‘Summerland’ is apparently a pagan myth, a kind of equivalent to heaven, or paradise, and Alice’s determination to explain some strange sightings form an important backdrop to the story. 

We were drawn into the story immediately, and thought it an excellent film; it wasn’t at all predictable. There was one twist towards the end that felt like too much of a coincidence to be believable, but it was later explained. And while some of the myths are explained by science, the film leaves the feeling that magic still happens sometimes…

The film is topped and tailed with brief scenes showing a much older version of Alice, played by Penelope Wilton, set in the 1970s. She’s excellent in the role, but looks so unlike Gemma Alterton that I would not have guessed it was supposed to be the same character. So it’s a good thing that we see her at the beginning, grumpy as she’s interrupted in her typing, with the image fading into that of her younger self in the main part of the film. The actor who plays the adult Frank in a very short scene at the end is also entirely unlike the young Frank. However, these are my only very minor gripes. The final section set in 1970 is encouraging and positive, and is a good way of finishing off the story without lengthy explanations. 

Rated 12 which I think is probably right; there’s minimal bad language, only a hint of intimacies in the flashbacks, and violence off stage, in incidents related to the war. 

Our DVD has a couple of extras: interviews with the director and writer, Jessica Swale, and with Gemma Alterton. We thought them well worth seeing. 

Review copyright 2023 Sue's DVD Reviews

Keeping the Faith

(Amazon UK link)

Browsing in a local church charity shop, I spotted several DVDs that looked as if they might be worth watching. At 50 cents apiece, I decided to invest in four of them; if they turned out to be terrible, I knew I could always donate them back. One of the videos I chose was ‘Keeping the Faith’, a film made in 2000 which we had never heard of. We decided to watch it last night.

It’s billed as a romantic comedy, and in our opinion it succeeds in this aim, unlike many films of that genre. There are three main characters: Jake (Ben Stiller), Anna (Jenna Elfman) and Brian (Edward Norton). We quickly learn, via a few flashback sequences, that these three were inseparable close friends from the age of about thirteen, where they met in their high school in New York. Anna was very much the leader; she even defended them from bullies.

But a few years later her family moved away. Jake and Brian remained close buddies, but they haven’t seen Anna in a long time. They know she has gone on to become a highly successful businesswoman, a very different path from theirs. For Jake, who comes from an orthodox Jewish family, has become a Rabbi, while Brian, whose family is Roman Catholic, has become a priest. They remain close, both trying to bring their congregations into the 21st century, and planning a social bar for retired folk, offering karaoke…

In the first half of the film, the three are platonic friends, and when Anna returns to New York, Jake and Brian hope they’ll be able to continue their close relationship, while acknowledging that none of them has a lot of free time. What they’re not expecting is a gorgeous young woman whom they both find immensely attractive…

However, Brian has pledged to be celibate, and - so far - hasn’t had a problem with this. And while Jake would do better in his field if he were married, his wife needs to be Jewish. He’s forever being offered young Jewish women, daughters or granddaughters of his congregation, but none of them really seems right. A lot is made of the importance of family and friends in his culture, with Anne Bancroft excellent in her role as Jake’s mother.

We thought the film was extremely well done, with a good amount of gentle humour (some of it approaching slapstick, but with such good timing that we appreciated it very much). We particularly liked the fact that both the Jewish and Christian faiths were portrayed in positive ways. Both Brian and Jake have to examine what they believe, and consider what is most important to them - and it’s not at all obvious where the story is going.

I was a bit surprised that the film is only rated 12; while there’s almost no violence and not much bad language, there are some obviously sexual scenes, albeit without nudity or anything explicit. I don’t suppose a younger teenager would be interested in the story, but I think I’d have given it a rating of 15.

There are quite a few ‘extras’ to our DVD, including about ten deleted scenes, some of which, we felt, could have been included in the film. Seeing them really did feel like a bonus.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in a very positive film about love and faith, if you don’t mind the scenes of intimacy.

Review copyright 2023 Sue's DVD Reviews