My Review- Summerland

My Rating 8/10

This is the fourth film I've seen Gemma Arterton in recently and I think her finest performance . She is a very versatile Actress /Producer . Her other recent films The Escape (2017) Black Narcissus,(2020) and Vita and Virginia (2018) are all very different roles and tell me Gemma is another of the great younger British Actresses that will follow in the path of Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith.

Summerland is a hard film to find it had a very short Cinema release and I couldn't find it on my Streaming channels so I was glad to find it on DVD. It's beautifully filmed on location throughout East Sussex in the towns of Seaford & Brighton as well as in the county of Kent and at The Historic Dockyard Chatham in Kent . We first are introduced to the main character Alice as an older cranky reclusive woman ( Penelope Wilton) who just wants to get on typing her novel while being bothered with interruptions from village locals . Then we return in time to World War 11 and meet young Alice (Gemma Arterton) still a prickly quick tempered reclusive writer, resigned to a solitary life on the seaside cliffs of Southern England while World War II rages across the channel. Alice has good reason to be cynical and disappointed with life as she has loved and lost . She loved a woman Vera played beautifully by Gugu Mbatha-Raw but as many men and women then had to hide or suppress their sexuality their life together seemed impossible for Vera who wanted children and they parted. Alice opens her front door one day to find she's to adopt a young London evacuee named Frank, played by young Lucas Bond in another fine child acting role.he's perfection as the young war evacuee. He gets to portray some very dramatic moments in "Summerland " and I'm so impressed with the quality of child actors and their training in films today. Alice is horrified at the prospect of sharing her life even for a week with a strange child and she's resistant at first but does her bit for the War effort. It's not long, however, before the two realize they have more in common in their pasts than Alice had assumed. This is an intensely emotional story of love's endurance in trying times. It's beautiful to look at and it has pathos a little whimsy and magic and most importantly a fine script by Jessica Swale an Olivier Award winning playwright , screenwriter and Director. This film is one instance where the author has also done a fine job directing her film adaptation. Tom Courtney at 83 years old also gives a great supporting role performance as Mr Sullivan the village elder. If you can get to see if this fine British film I thoroughly recommend it .

Summerland is an easy to watch enjoyable movie. Nothing too difficult, just a simple story with a good outcome. The kind of movie where the characters get your attention and compassion. Gemma Arterton did a good job playing her character and as for the kids, Lucas Bond and Dixie Egerickx certainly were not annoying to watch. They all delivered here which is not always obvious with child actors. The story is well written, not a fast pace but certainly interesting to watch and the ending was a bit surprising but in a good way. Definitely worth a watch.

During WWII, reclusive spinster writer Alice Lamb (Gemma Arterton) is looked upon as a witch by the rest of the seaside community. She writes about the theory of fantasies and mythological lore. Her latest obsession is sightings of islands in the sky. Out of the blue, the authorities leave her a boy. Frank is a child evacuee from London. She is desperate to get rid of him. He befriends fellow black sheep classmate Edie. In flashbacks, Alice has a lesbian romance with Vera (Gugu Mbatha-Raw).

I really like the kids' relationship and Alice with the boy. There are two problems. The easiest to solve is the ending. I want Frank to end up with Edie. Why can't they show up at the cottage with happy cute little kids? I hate that their last scene is that scene. The bigger problem is Frank ending up with Alice in the first place. One must assume that Vera had written a letter to Alice to tell her about Frank. The easiest solution to that would be to have the first letter in the movie be that letter. Alice would be so frustrated that she wouldn't even open it. She could stuff it back into the mail box and when she finds the photos, she could scramble to finally open that first letter. That is a better sequencing of events.